The laugh track is doing to comedy what AIDS is doing to Africa, F'ing it up! Why do we need to be told when we should laugh? Are we that dense? Perhaps we need to be informed that something is funny because it isn't in fact that funny! I remember watching one of my favorite shows "Ali G" recently and they added a laugh track to the American version. That show is freaking hilarious and the laugh track actually made it less funny. Show's are much better without the annoying droil of scripted laughter in the back ground. Much like grocery stores would be infinitely more pleasant without the politically correct music the play to drown out the sounds of whining children "but mommy I want it!". Take movies for example, they don't have laugh tracks, yet people still know when to laugh, well usually. Merissa and I were watching "I Love you Man" (which was hysterical) and there was this funny part that I laughed at but no one else in the theater did, that actually made the moment more funny to me. I won this Scrabble game by the way =P
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Manic Homey
The laugh track is doing to comedy what AIDS is doing to Africa, F'ing it up! Why do we need to be told when we should laugh? Are we that dense? Perhaps we need to be informed that something is funny because it isn't in fact that funny! I remember watching one of my favorite shows "Ali G" recently and they added a laugh track to the American version. That show is freaking hilarious and the laugh track actually made it less funny. Show's are much better without the annoying droil of scripted laughter in the back ground. Much like grocery stores would be infinitely more pleasant without the politically correct music the play to drown out the sounds of whining children "but mommy I want it!". Take movies for example, they don't have laugh tracks, yet people still know when to laugh, well usually. Merissa and I were watching "I Love you Man" (which was hysterical) and there was this funny part that I laughed at but no one else in the theater did, that actually made the moment more funny to me. I won this Scrabble game by the way =P
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Very nice blog and you made a good point! Of course you won this game by a bazillion points!
ReplyDeleteSadly, twas always thus. They have had laugh tracks since I was a little girl (and as you know, I am quite old...) Back then, there was only one laugh track, and they used it for every single show. I began to recognize the particular laugh sounds, and found myself anticipating the next familiar laugher. Because it was on a loop, the same sequence of laughs would play over and over. A real distraction. This continued through the era of Laugh-In.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it's insulting to be told what is funny or when it's appropriate to laugh. Maybe that's why I don't find certain acclaimed programs amusing. I am too stubborn to respond to a LAUGH NOW sign.