Sitcoms - Have they gotten worse?

[ixcuincle]

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I think of this whenever I hear a sitcom with a laugh track. I can't stand laugh tracks or "studio audiences".

[Andrew]

I'm still surprised that it bugs people as much as it does, to me it's just kind of there and becomes a part of the background. It's admittedly a staple of a lot of bad and mediocre sitcoms, and like anything it can be handled badly, but a lot of the really good shows have had them too and I don't feel it's detracted from the quality at all. I've also noticed it doesn't seem to be as much of a complaint with British sitcoms, compared to American shows.

In all fairness though, a lot of the things that bug me about sitcoms and comedy series in general probably sound strange to others, too.

[JaoSming]

what is weird though is I don't mind watching stand up specials with the live crowd laughing....

[Andrew]

I think it'd be weird to see stand-up without one; it's the type of performance that pretty much requires and feeds off the response of a live audience.

[benji]

It's because the sound is different. Laugh tracks are often set at a higher volume than the said dialogue (otherwise it's not noticeable enough), while in a stand-up the crowd itself isn't mic'd, it's the other mic's that are picking up the entire crowd because of their outsized sound. The laugh tracks are often separately recorded from people watching the show after the fact. (Otherwise it ruins the audio on the dialogue.)

British sitcoms of the 70s/80s etc. like were mentioned in this thread, Are You Being Served?, Yes, Minister, etc. have almost oppressive laugh tracks because of their volume, and then the clapping over the credits is beyond offensive.

I can often tune them out though and don't have the problem most people do. I just consider them warning signs of no confidence in the writing. Seinfeld and Frasier (among a few others, I believe Friends lowered theirs over the years) do have lower volume laugh tracks than most shows and plus I've seen them enough they sorta fade away even more.

In all fairness though, a lot of the things that bug me about sitcoms and comedy series in general probably sound strange to others, too.

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[JaoSming]

with the laugh tracks, I really only started having issues with them after I watched I think a Simpsons episode where the audience didn't laugh when they were supposed to or something. Reinforced later by the Family Guy rib on the studio audience outside.

Kinda like the "Swish" thing in 2K12, I just wasn't bothered by it until it was pointed out that this is when I should be laughing.

[benji]

Should share this:

Network research suggested that the laugh track was required in order to brand a single-camera show as a comedy. In 1965 CBS showed its new single-camera sitcom Hogan's Heroes to test audiences in two versions: one with the laugh track, the other without. Partly due to the somewhat cerebral nature of the show's humor, the version without the laugh track failed with test audiences, while the version with canned laughter got an excellent reaction. The show was broadcast with the laugh track, and CBS decided to utilize Douglass' services moving forward for all single-camera sitcoms.

I've seen some people mention at times they can't laugh at things unless other people are laughing because they feel awkward. Especially if watching a show alone.

"Why a laugh track?" Scheimer asked. "Because you feel that you are watching the program with a group of people instead of being alone."

In 2011, critic James Parker bemoaned the absence of laugh tracks in many popular sitcoms of the time, feeling that the idea of not having an audience had become an overused gimmick:
"Silence now encases the sitcom, the lovely, corny crackle of the laugh track having vaporized into little bathetic air pockets and farts of anticlimax. Enough, I say. This burlesque of naturalism has depleted us. Give me the honest joinery of The George Lopez Show, the fat gags and the cackles on demand, over Parks and Recreation or NBC's ghastly version of The Office. Who knew irony could be so cloying?"

Remembered that Sports Night was another that went from a loud laugh track to slowly phasing it out to near nothing.

[Andrew]

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For me, it's things like:

- Unsympathetic, unlikeable characters that aren't interesting or humourous enough to make up for it
- Badly handled mean-spirited and misanthropic humour (ie the only joke is that characters are jerks, being jerks to one another)
- Gratuitous potshots at other works instead of jokes driven by the show's characters

Shows that are mostly made up of that kind of stuff tend to be offputting to me and it also irritates me when I see it in shows that I do like. It doesn't mean that the shows are necessarily bad - though I do think the second point is an example of comedy being done poorly - but it usually limits their appeal to me.