Laugh Track: Difference between revisions
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{{quote|'''Comic 1:''' Why did the chicken cross the road?
'''Comic 2:''' I dunno.
'''Comic 1:''' [[Anti-Humor|To get to the other side]]!
|''(Enormously loud blast of screaming laughter from audience).''}}
{{quote|''See? The laugh track tells you what's funny. [[Viewers are Morons|You don't even need to think!]]''
|'''Granddad''', ''[[The Boondocks]]''}}
[[Viewers are Morons|Closed-captioning for the humor-impaired]].
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The general opinion of the audience held by television executives then (and some would argue now) was [[Viewers are Morons|very low]]. There was serious concern that without a [[Studio Audience]] to "prompt" the home viewer's responses, a comedy would fall flat. The solution was the creation of the '''Laugh Track''' (also known as [[Canned Laughter]]) -- an artificial audience that did nothing but react uproariously to anything and everything.
Naturally, within a few years of its introduction, it was abused and overused. ''Every'' punchline, no matter how lame or subtle, would receive the same tsunami of belly laughs from the virtual audience. It became epidemic, even
Although it may not seem so, laugh tracks were surprisingly sophisticated systems at the height of their use. Rather than being just simple recordings of a laughing audience, they were actually carefully generated and mixed, with such discrete components as "the guy who gets the joke early" and "housewife giggles" and "the one who didn't get the joke but is laughing anyway" all precisely blended and reblended to create the illusion of a real audience responding to the show.
A history and analysis of the laugh track can be found on the web [https://web.archive.org/web/20131109212636/http://www.tvparty.com/laugh.html here]. Cecil
Adams' syndicated column ''The Straight Dope'' also [https://web.archive.org/web/20090108182004/http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mlaughtrack.html covered the topic]. ''The Onion'' is very fond of [https://web.archive.org/web/20100221085002/http://www.theonion.com/content/opinion/ha_ha_ha_i_can_t_believe_how mocking] [https://web.archive.org/web/20100221220846/http://www.theonion.com/content/node/31948 laugh] [https://web.archive.org/web/20100219121841/http://www.theonion.com/content/node/32398 tracks] [https://web.archive.org/web/20100219112624/http://www.theonion.com/content/node/35647 extensively].
The term "Laugh Track" is often misapplied to shows that are filmed and later screened to an audience, whose responses are then recorded. This is inappropriate, though, because in these cases the laughter was a genuine response to the humor in the show, and was not pre-recorded... although it's not unheard of for supplemental canned laughter to be inserted afterwards. Sometimes the term is even applied to the existence of a [[Studio Audience]]. In fact, [[Studio Audience]] sitcoms like ''[[The Big Bang Theory]]'' get the accusations of "Laugh Tracks" ''more'' than shows that actually use a '''Laugh Track''', because a '''Laugh Track''' tends to be quieter and less
In some Latin American countries (Argentina, for example), the '''Laugh Track''' is replaced by a crew of off-screen people paid specifically to ''laugh on command'' whenever the comedic situation (presumably) merits a laugh; they are known as ''reidores'' ("laughers"); a senior laugher signals all the others when to laugh. In all the others (as happened in Mexico), comedies without it were openly stated to have no laugh track because they respected their audience, most notably the Chespirito programs, such as ''[[El Chavo del Ocho]]''. A less direct version in US media is the ''"[[Cheers]] is filmed before a Live [[Studio Audience]]"''-style disclaimer.
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{{examples}}
== Played Straight ==
* In ''[[American Born Chinese]]'', the Chin-Kee story is meant to resemble a TV
===
* In ''[[Naruto Veangance Revelaitons]]'', the author will sometimes put "(LOL)" or some other variant, sometimes with [[Don't Explain the Joke|an explanation of what the joke is]] after some parts he thinks are funny.▼
▲* In ''[[American Born Chinese]]'', the Chin-Kee story is meant to resemble a TV comedy—the story even uses canned laughter in the form of "hahahaha" written at the bottom of the panel. The canned laughter is played straight for most of the Chin-Kee story, until near the end when Danny fights Chin-Kee, where the laughter becomes overwhelming.
=== Fan Fiction ===▼
▲* In [[Naruto Veangance Revelaitons]], the author will sometimes put "(LOL)" or some other variant, sometimes with [[Don't Explain the Joke|an explanation of what the joke is]] after some parts he thinks are funny.
=== Film ===
* The DVD of ''[[Seltzer and Friedberg|Epic Movie]]'' actually comes with an optional laugh track.
** As does ''[[Seltzer and Friedberg|Date Movie]]''
* This is also mentioned in the [[Andy Kaufman]] [[Biopic]] ''[[Man on the Moon]]'', when Andy explains why he is not interested in doing a [[Taxi|sitcom]]: "It's just stupid jokes and canned laughter! And you don't know why it's there, but it's there! And it's dead people laughing, did you know that? Those people are dead!" (Interestingly, this rant may have been [[Throw It In|improvised]] by [[Jim Carrey]] since only the first line appeared in the script.)
* Used in a segment of the film ''[[Natural Born Killers]]''.
=== Literature ===
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{{quote|"Most of the laugh tracks on television were recorded in the early 1950s. These days, most of the people you hear laughing are dead."}}
▲=== Live Action TV ===
▲* The first laugh track was used in 1950 on NBC's ''[[The Hank Mc Cune Show]]''.
* ''[[Gilligan's Island]]'' and ''[[The Brady Bunch]]'' are two good examples of the height of laugh track abuse from the 1960s and early 1970s.
* The ''[[Twilight Zone]]'' episode "Cavender Is Coming", guest-starring Carol Burnett, featured a laugh track (as it was a pilot for a sitcom). The director was so offended by this that he refused to be in the studio when the laugh track man was present.
* In the 1980s, there was a situation comedy series written and produced by [[Mel Brooks]] (yes, ''that'' Mel Brooks) called ''The Nutt House'' (which was [[Too Good to Last]]). [[Executive Meddling]] resulted in laugh tracks, because the executives felt that [[Viewers are Morons]]. The result was loud, jarring, clumsily dubbed-in
* ''[[Get Smart]]'', another series with which Brooks was involved, had some especially bad laugh tracks. (Mind you, some of its jokes weren't much to laugh about anyway.)
* See also ''[[I Dream of Jeannie]]'', ''[[Bewitched]]'' and other contemporaneous [[sitcom]]s.
** Although the Latin American dub mercifully removed it from both shows.
* [[Aaron Sorkin]] used to engage in knock down, drag out fights with ABC execs over the laugh track in''[[Sports Night]].'' He hated it, they demanded it, and for a brief period at the beginning of the show's run there was a laugh track. Sorkin eventually won out.
* The 1980s comedy ''[[Sledge Hammer!]]'' had its first-season, early-episodes laugh track edited out for the DVD release. The director's commentary explains that the talking heads at the studio forced the laugh track on him because they felt the show was too violent without it.
* ''[[Little Britain]]''.
* Possibly lampshaded in the "webcast" parts of ''[[iCarly]]'' (as in, the bits where we're watching the [[Show Within a Show]]) with Sam's remote. Usually [[Once an Episode]], she'll hold it up and press a button, which cues the laughter. It's played straight in the show proper, though.
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"Yeah, well, that's why this machine is dynamite." }}
* In the 1970s, the British pop music show ''Top of the Pops'' used a bizarrely fake-sounding applause track after each performance.
* ''[[M*A*S*H (television)|M*A*S*H]]'' had one at the network's insistence, but the producers successfully averted it in the OR scenes, and were able to dispense with it entirely for certain later episodes. (The DVD releases of the show provide an option for the viewer to disable the laugh track on the episodes that have it; [[Your Mileage May Vary|YMMV]] on whether or not doing so improves the show.)
* Two Garry Marshall-produced sitcoms (''[[The Odd Couple]]'' and ''[[Happy Days]]'') had laugh tracks in their inaugural seasons, before shifting to a live [[Studio Audience]].
* The live-action segments of the ''[[Super Mario Brothers Super Show]]'', which leads to a humourous [[Mondegreen]] when the laugh track obscures something Mario [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogtjjQ6070U says].
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* The original British version of ''Da Ali G Show'' used a laugh track, but its American adaptation (known as ''Ali G in da USAiii'' in Britain) lacks it.
* NBC's ''100 Questions'' abused the hell out of this. It was eventually cancelled after 6 episodes.
* The Singaporean television show ''Kids Talk Back'', [[They Copied It,
* Both ''[[The Muppet Show]]'' and ''[[Muppets Tonight]]'' used laugh tracks. Justified in that both shows were presented as [[Show Within a Show|shows being performed for an audience]], and it would be entirely impossible to film this show in front of an audience due to the special effects and the puppeteers. Also, unlike most others, the laugh track sounded ''so'' real, people ''actually try to buy tickets for a taping!''
** The Muppet series routinely depicted a fake audience... of puppets, complete with two hecklers (Waldorf and Astoria) in the box seats. The reaction of such a puppet audience is, inevitably, fake.
** Actually, some of it ''was'' real laughter. Apparently the stagehands' favorite skits were with the Swedish Chef and would crowd the set to watch the taping. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8UE8ADvF_s Listen very closely] and you can hear a really loud laugh and somebody clapping their hands that doesn't match up with the laugh track
** The [[Steve Martin]] episode was originally supposed to dispense with the laugh track and feature only the cast laughing ([[It Makes Sense in Context|The Muppets had to cancel the show to audition new acts, but Steve Martin decided to perform anyway]]). However, the
* Every [[CBS]] sitcom, even in the modern era where shows like ''[[The Office]]'' and ''[[Modern Family]]'' have been critically acclaimed and immensely successful without the use of one. In fact, CBS is the only network that still uses laugh tracks with any frequency.
=== Music ===
* Many of [[Ray Stevens]]' comedy records featured laugh tracks, such as "The Streak" and "Shriners' Convention." This may be the most [[Egregious]] use of laugh tracks ''ever''.
* [[Johnny Cash]] sometimes dubbed applause machines into his songs, most notably "Sunday Morning Coming Down". It's really, really fake-sounding.
=== Professional Wrestling ===
* Most [[Professional Wrestling]] promotions that produce TV shows make use, to some degree, of "canned heat", which is not so much a Laugh Track as cheer tracks, boo tracks, and sometimes specific chants ([[WCW|"Goooooooooooooldberg... Gooooooooooooooldberg..."]]). This is generally played over the stadium's PA system, in an attempt to coax the crowd into a given reaction (or, at the very least, fool the audience at home into thinking the crowd are giving a reaction). And it's also handy for importing into video game adaptations.
▲=== Real Life ===
* Perhaps for such reasons, a Canadian show investigated whether a laugh track makes any difference. They played the sound from dry banter on a cop show for random persons on the street, and got some good laughs. They then added a laugh track and went out on the street again, and people laughed much harder. Statistically speaking, probably insignificant, but interesting nonetheless.▼
=== Video Games ===
* Strangely enough, this trope is also invoked by the ''[[Ganbare Goemon]]'' series of [[Video Games]], the most well-known example being in ''Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon''.
* The videogame ''Gekioh: Shooting King'' has an optional mode that
=== Western Animation ===
* [[Hanna-Barbera]] is perhaps the biggest offender. Almost all of its ''animated'' series have laugh tracks, firing at more or less random times.
** ''[[The Flintstones]]'' was recently remastered without a laugh track, and [[Your Mileage May Vary|reportedly]] the humor falls flatter than a pancake without it.
*** The age of the humor might be a factor there.
** Notably the ''[[All in The Family]]''
*** It seems to be HB's policy to remove all laugh tracks when remastering its animated series. However, this can only be done if the original dialogue, music and effects tracks can be located, which is not always possible.
*** The early ''[[Scooby Doo]]'' series from CBS had laugh tracks [[Edited for Syndication|added for syndication]].
*** The laugh tracks in the first seasons of ''Scooby Doo, Where Are You!'' were there from the get-go. Subsequent shows had the laugh track when first broadcast but the laughs were inconspicuously absent when prepared for syndication.
*** All H-B's prime time animated comedies in the 60s had laugh tracks. Their Saturday morning shows, save for ''Scooby Doo, Where Are You!,'' didn't. The only 1970s series that didn't have laugh tracks were those animated in Australia, the odd drama shows (''Sealab 2020, Devlin'') and their [[Tom and Jerry]] 1975 retool. The laugh track was abandoned in 1980.
* ''Any'' recent live-action "cartoon" produced by [[Nickelodeon]] or the [[Disney Channel]] (but see Exceptions below) is rife full of this -- most of them even use the same laugh track.
** For recent Nickelodeon shows, the 6.8 or 6.2 audio subcarrier sometimes carried a music+sound effect track, with no speech. Handy for catching an instrumental version of the ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' theme, but the live action shows are distinctly disturbing: The show is silent save for gales of repetitive and inappropriate laughter punctuated by the occasional machine noise or dog bark.
* The first eight episodes of ''[[Rocky and Bullwinkle]]'' featured a laugh track.
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* The theatrical ''[[Pink Panther]]'' shorts had laugh tracks added when they were shown on television.
▲* Perhaps for such reasons, a Canadian show investigated whether a laugh track makes any difference. They played the sound from dry banter on a cop show for random persons on the street, and got some good laughs. They then added a laugh track and went out on the street again, and people laughed much harder. Statistically speaking, probably insignificant, but interesting nonetheless.
== Parodies ==
=== Anime and Manga ===
* One episode of ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series]]'' has Tea say that she will prove that women can be equal to men. A laugh track suddenly pops up.
** ''[[Show Within a Show|Zorc & Pals]]'' also uses it. Appropriate since it's a parody of 50s sitcoms.
* Also appears in ''[[Dragon Ball Abridged]]'' when Vegeta makes an [[Incredibly Lame Pun]].
* In [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMj1ijOOAjA&feature=related this] episode of the ''[[Puyo Puyo]]'' anime, we are first given a message with tells us to laugh when the icon <ref>Suketoudara is that icon.</ref> prompts us to.<ref>Followed by a practice in which the laugh is heard twice.</ref> Here are all three icon prompts:
{{quote|{{spoiler|When Kiki Mora lifts up her sweeper from the sand.}}
{{spoiler|When Kiki Mora's sweeper stops at the water bottle.}}
{{spoiler|During the chase scene.}} }}
* Parodied in a sketch by Alexei Sayle... on a sketch show featuring canned laughter. He explained the technique to the viewing audience as he walked through a field, and complained about its cheapness. He then headed off accusations of hypocrisy (How could he have real viewers in a ''field''?) by revealing a large audience on portable stadium seating.▼
* As early as 1959, radio comics [[Bob and Ray|Bob & Ray]] were satirizing the concept by hauling out a 'laugh machine' (because "we don't feel we're getting the correct response from you [listeners],") then making it roar with joy over a deliberately awful sitcom pilot.▼
=== Comics ===▼
* In one strip of ''[[Calvin and Hobbes]]'' Calvin decides that to liven up his life, he's going to make it more like a TV show, complete with soundtrack and laugh track. His mother's reaction mirrors that of most people on hearing a laugh track.▼
=== Film ===
* A laugh track starts playing in ''[[Fireball]]'', to the great dismay of Drossel, who is convinced it is caused by intruding spies.
* Used in ''[[Scott Pilgrim vs. the World]]'' in one scene with Scott and Wallace to show how inflated Scott's ego had gotten (to wit: he thought he was [[Seinfeld|Jerry Seinfeld]])
=== Literature ===
* [[Harlan Ellison]] wrote a story, "Laugh Track," about a woman whose ghost possessed all of the laugh tracks on TV (because her laughter appeared on the tape that was copied to make all of them), and instead of laughing complained loudly about the quality of the shows concerned and television in general.
▲=== Live Action TV ===
* ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'', which never actually used a proper laugh track (though it was shot in front of a studio audience), featured a few sketches in which canned laughter and applause tracks were triggered by one of the characters—including the "[[Attila the Hun]] Show" (which parodied American sitcoms) and the "Interesting People" sketch, in which Michael Palin can be seen reaching off camera to turn the applause on and off.
** Taken a step further in their running gag of using obvious black-and-white stock footage of applauding audiences throughout the series.
* Referenced in the ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series]]'' episode ''[[Bread and Circuses]]'', where we see a 20th century TV technician turning the canned applause on and off on a programme. Fine, except it's a 20th century ''Roman Empire'' and the programme consists of televised
* ''[[TV Funhouse]]'' (as [[Spin-Off|its
* An episode of ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'' shows Servo using a laugh track every time Crow utters his newly adopted "[[Sitcom]]" [[Catch Phrase]] "You Know You Want Me Baby!" The really old cassette player Servo is using ultimately eats the laugh track.
* A certain single-episode show summed up its content by taking the name ''[[Canned Laughter]]''. While the end credits rolled, the same quick laugh track was played over... and over... and over...
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{{quote|Canned Laughter
'''Dean:''' ''How is that funny''? Vultures! }}
* A ''[[French And Saunders]]'' sketch (featuring Dame Helen Mirren and Julia Sawalha) parodying sitcoms had the incessant laugh track constantly interrupting the already terrible punchlines, ruining the timing of the actors by cutting them off when they were speaking, making the whole thing [[So Unfunny It's Funny]], until they got annoyed and basically walked off the sketch.
* In an episode of ''[[30
* In the Pierce Brosnan episode of ''[[Muppets Tonight]]'', a particularly bad pun from Rizzo provokes no reaction whatsoever, causing Clifford to remark that "Even the laugh track didn't think that was funny."
* Used for the imaginary [[Show Within a Show]] ''Pyro and the Idiot'' in the ''[[Corner Gas]]'' episode "Self-Serving."
* The short-lived [[Comedy Central]] sitcom ''Big Lake'' featured a laugh track, but its presence was for ironic and sarcastic purposes - the stuff that it triggered on were often [[Cringe Comedy|very uncomfortable]] or [[Black Comedy|dark]] situations - essentially mocking the laugh track by using it incorrectly.
* In the early local episodes of ''You Can't Do That On Television'', Christine says the show has no laugh track because it's both the right thing to do and they can't afford (although they added it in when they went to Nickelodeon). Then they show a clip from the local farm report with a laugh track added in.
=== Music ===
* Sent up in [["Weird Al" Yankovic
{{quote|''Oh Ricky, what a pity, don't you understand,
▲=== Newspaper Comics ===
▲* In one strip of ''[[Calvin and Hobbes]]'' Calvin decides that to liven up his life, he's going to make it more like a TV show, complete with soundtrack and laugh track. His mother's reaction mirrors that of most people on hearing a laugh track.
=== Recorded and Stand Up Comedy ===
▲* Parodied in a sketch by Alexei Sayle... on a sketch show featuring canned laughter. He explained the technique to the viewing audience as he walked through a field, and complained about its cheapness. He then headed off accusations of hypocrisy (How could he have real viewers in a ''field''?) by revealing a large audience on portable stadium seating.
▲* As early as 1959, radio comics [[Bob and
=== Web Original ===
* [[
{{quote|'''[[Street Fighter|Akuma]]''': "GOUKEN, I'M HOME."}}
* Used in ''[http://spacetree.keentoons.com/bee.html Face Bee] [[Space Tree|The Face Bee]] [[Department of Redundancy Department|in Your Face]]!''
* Used in [[The Nostalgia Chick]]'s review of ''[[Grease]]'' after Sandy says that she now knows that Danny truly respects her.
* In ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HTqbxYsYwc The Dr. Steel Show, Episode 1]'', [[Doctor Steel]] enters his lab at the beginning of the show to wild applause, which he reacts humbly to... then [[Lampshade Hanging|reaches over and turns a dial which turns off the applause track]].
* [[The Cinema Snob|Brad Jones]] uses this in his ''[[
{{quote|'''The Cinema Snob:''' Careful with that laugh track; we need it for the next "80s Dan"!}}
* See ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' turned into [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CrjYpX5M3o "a crappy 80's sitcom with a few sound effects"].
* The final episode of the first season of ''[[RWBY Chibi]]'', "The One with a Laugh Track", is [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]], although in this case the laugh track is simulating a live [[Studio Audience]] watching the [[Animated Actors|episode being filmed]] in classic [[Three Cameras|three-camera]] [[Sit Com]] style.
=== Video Games ===
* In ''[[Kirby]] Super Star Ultra'', an unlockable blooper reel features a laugh track. Being the ''Kirby'' series, all of the laughter is unintelligible squeaks.
* Parodied in on of the chapters of the [[Sierra]] adventure game ''
* ''[[The Legend of Kyrandia]] III: Malcolm's Revenge'' has what is presumably a parody of this: laughter will often occur after Malcolm's comments, regardless of whether they are intended to be funny. Thankfully, it can be disabled in the options menu.
=== Web Comics ===
* ''[[Calamities of Nature]]'' asks the question, [https://web.archive.org/web/20130523054335/http://www.calamitiesofnature.com/archive/?c=412 why do sitcoms still use laugh tracks?]
* ''[[Grrl Power]]'': The grandmother of Tony and Olivia uses a tape recorder to turn her family life into a sitcom.
=== Western Animation ===
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** Taken [[Up to Eleven]] in one episode where Brain's heavily edited show is played before a live studio audience. Every time James Woods and another actor says something, the audience laughs at the line and it's the same ''exact'' laugh every time, making it sound like the laughter is canned.
* In the ''[[South Park]]'' episode "Jakovasaur", the household of the Jakovasaurs is presented as a typical [[Dom Com]], complete with laugh track. When Cartman comes to visit, he wonders [[Lampshade Hanging|where all the laughter is coming from]].
* ''[[The Grim Adventures of Billy
* The ''Justice Friends'' segment of ''[[Dexter's Laboratory]]'' uses laugh tracks in parody of live-action sitcoms (of which it borrows a format).
* One episode of ''[[Rocko's Modern Life]]'' featured two parasite characters living on Spunky, whose adventures were spoofs of typical '60s sitcoms. The scenes with them have laugh tracks, which the rest of the show lacks.
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* An episode of ''[[Chowder]]'' featured some jokes uncharacteristically followed by a laugh track, until Mung finally orders a stop to "the canned laughter." This being "Chowder", it was quite [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|literal]].
* In an episode of ''[[Futurama]]'', the president of the network which airs "All My Circuits" proves how evil he is by saying, "I once put a laugh track on a sitcom that had no jokes in it!"
** In "A Bicyclops Built for Two", Katie Sagal's role on ''[[Married... with Children]]'' is parodied when an alien, Alcazar, has Leela dressed like Peggy and Alkazar sitting on his couch with one hand down his trousers
* Parodied in one episode of ''[[Danger Mouse]]'' where the title character says "I thought we weren't going to have canned laughter on this show" after a villain laughs and runs off.
* A ''[[Venture Brothers]]'' episode ran flashbacks of Rusty and Pete's college days with a laugh track added to evoke an '80s sitcom.
* ''[[101 Dalmatians|One Hundred and One Dalmatians]]: The Series'' didn't normally use a laugh track, but included a brief snippet of a laugh track following one of the jokes in "You Slipped a Disk" as well as the second half of the episode, "Chow About That?," apparently as throwaway gags.
== Exceptions ==
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* Used similarly in the segment of ''[[Natural Born Killers]]'' establishing Mallory's backstory. Mallory's father threatening to beat up her mother, Mallory's father groping Mallory and her brother asking if he was born of incest with her all have the "audience" rolling in the aisles. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXq2rsaOxWQ MASSIVELY disturbing.]
▲=== Live Action TV ===
* ''[[Scrubs]]'' is a notable exception, all the funnier for a lack of a laugh track in almost every episode (there is one exception in the [[Imagine Spot]] episode which parodies the traditional [[Sitcom]]) -- the lack of a laugh track allows for innovative use of [[Sound Effects]] instead.
** NBC actually advertised its Thursday night comedy block (which Scrubs [[Channel Hop|was]] a part of) as being completely laugh track free.
* ''[[Police Squad!]]'' was one of the first sitcoms to have neither a laugh track nor a live studio audience.
* A couple of sitcoms made by the Disney Channel actually have ''not'' used a laugh track -- ''[[Lizzie McGuire]]'', ''Even Stevens'', and ''Jonas''. ''Naturally Sadie'', ''Phil of the Future'', and ''Life with Derek'', all of which have been aired on the channel, also do not have a soundtrack.
* The Canadian sitcoms ''[[Made in Canada]]'', ''[[Corner Gas]],'' ''[[Little Mosque on the Prairie]],
* ''[[The Monkees]]'' got rid of their laugh track in the middle of their second (and final) season, and the non-laugh track episodes have such a different feel it almost seems like they're part of an entirely different show.
* ''[[The Kenny Everett Video Show]]'' on ITV in the late 70s was unique in that there was no studio audience, but the viewer could clearly hear the cameramen, floor manager, writers and other studio crew laughing out loud off screen.
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* Most sketch shows are filmed in front of studio audiences. In shows that have a weird sense of humor or play with format a lot, this is often self-evident, because there'll be a lot of apprehensive tittering if the audience doesn't know where a sketch is going, or one person howling uncontrollably while the rest of the audience is just mildly amused, or occasionally a punchline or an [[Beat|important silence]] being ruined by premature laughter. Understandably, performers of shows like this can get quite exasperated when they're accused of using canned laughter—why would anyone deliberately add in audience reactions that ''get in the way of the jokes''?
* According to the "liner notes" on the ''Monty Python's Flying Circus Ultimate Collector's Edition'', the Pythons ''never'' used a "laugh track". The laughter on their skits all came from the studio audience. If a routine didn't get enough laughs, they didn't "sweeten" the laughs- they just left that routine on the cutting-room floor and didn't air it.
* ''[[SCTV]]'' did sketch comedy without a live audience. The formative years for the show were shot in Edmonton, Alberta where television talent was apparently so sparse that the laugh track was done by the guy who did the farm reports, just adding laughter at regular, arbitrary intervals.
* ''[[Delta House]]'', a sitcom version of the surprise hit movie ''[[Animal House]]'', went beyond canned laughter to canned wolf whistles, canned villain-booing, etc. in a vain attempt to capture the feel of the movie.
* The current trend of [[Mockumentary]] style sitcoms like ''[[The Office]]'' and ''[[Parks and Recreation]]'' has dealt another blow to the laugh track. Obviously, shows like these ''can't'' use laugh tracks, since that would destroy the illusion that the shows consist of documentary footage. This type of series doesn't use music (except in the opening credits) for the same reason.
* ''[[Glenn Martin, DDS]]'', a ''stop-motion'' show, had a laugh track for about 8 episodes until it was removed entirely because the creators claim "it gave the show too much internal thinking".
* Some Nick shows have no laugh track, such as ''[[Zoey 101]]'', ''[[Big Time Rush]]'' and ''The Troop'', which are somewhat unusual for the channel but are all [[Justified Trope|justified]] by ''not'' being typical [[Three Cameras]] [[Kid Com]] shows ''and'' being shot extensively on location. It also helps than [[Zoey 101]] is a dramedy and [[The Troop]] is an action/adventure show.
** Same goes for some Disney Channel Shows, such as the channel's earliest shows, the show ''[[Lizzie McGuire]]'' and more recently ''Jonas L.A.'' which was shot on location in (you guessed it!) L.A. ''Jonas L.A.'' also was Disney Channel's first show with a continuing story in each episode. It too was a drama, so no need for laugh track. It should've lasted longer in my opinion.
* It seems Chuck Lorre got so tired of people thinking ''[[The Big Bang Theory]]'' used a laugh track that he put [http://www.chucklorre.com/index-bbt.php?p=282 this] at the end of an episode.
** The show does frequently set certain locales and scenes that would be difficult to do with a studio audience, but they've said that those scenes are still shown to an audience (recording their reactions) to keep the laugh track consistent. Because of the use of the studio audience (apparently often composed of Caltech students, where the characters in the show work) you will get people who laugh at the [[Genius Bonus|obscure jokes]] and [[Techno Babble]] gags ''before'' they are explained.
** People may think it has a laugh track because the laughter sometimes seems very forced and extremely noticeable, or laughing when nobody has said anything.
* ''[[Malcolm in the Middle]]'' doesn't use a laughtrack either.
** ''[[Malcolm in the Middle]]''{{'}}s ultimate legacy is that, along with the British sitcom ''[[Spaced]]'', its considered to be the [[Trope Codifier]] of the single camera, laugh track
* Oddly enough, ''[[The Mighty Boosh]]'' was supposed to have a laugh track in its early stage of production, as we can see with the pilot episode (it's included in the DVDs). They actually showed the episode in front of an audience and recorded their laughter. Julian Barratt and [[Noel Fielding]] found the audience overdid it so much that they decided not to keep it. It sounds disastrous indeed, as The Boosh is clearly not a "laugh out loud" type of comedy.
* ''[[All in The Family]]'' was recorded in front of a live studio audience, as announced at the end of nearly each episode. In the later seasons they stopped using live audiences, presumably because they were distractions to the actors; they played back each episode to the audience instead.
** However later seasons, as well as the [[After Show]] ''[[Archie Bunker's Place]]'', used a laughtrack reportedly at Carol O Conner's insistance.
* Latin American hits, ''[[El Chavo del Ocho]]'' / ''[[El Chapulin Colorado]]''. It is a long story. These shows were originally abusive of the laugh tracks, but the later sketch show ''Chespirito'' from the same author that often included ''[[El Chavo del Ocho]]'' and ''[[El Chapulin Colorado]]'' did not have a laugh track and it was explicitly mentioned that it was for respect of the audience. However, it is worth noticing that it actually used certain music tracks that played after each joke.
* ''[[Home Improvement (TV series)|Home Improvement]]'' not only used a live studio audience's laughter, but they also got their extras from audience volunteers. For "[[Show Within a Show|Tool Time]]" the studio audience was the ''actual'' studio audience, and you can see how people are laughing at the gags on the show as though they were at a sitcom taping.
* ''[[The Daily Show]]'' and likewise its sister show ''[[The Colbert Report]]'' are filmed in front of a live audience. Both hosts interact with it fairly often, usually by telling them an off color joke was still funny, or criticizing their choice to laugh at a gag.
* Fox's ''[[Titus]]'' also used a live studio audience; episode tapings were performed as if the episode was live, with the show unfolding in the exact manner it would appear on TV (with the cast rehearsing the episode all week for the Friday taping) and capturing the studio audience's laughter as it happened. Even the cutaways towards Chris Titus' narration space were shown to the audience during the moments in the episodes they would occur.
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* ''[[The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack]]'' used this in the episode "Please Retire". [[Word of God]] states that this (along with a episode-long "drawn in front of a live audience" gag) is done whenever the crew thinks an episode could have been better, but they didn't have enough time to fix any problems with it.
* ''[[A Charlie Brown Christmas]]'' was supposed to air with a laugh track, a common element of children's cartoons at the time. Charles Schulz objected, maintaining that the audience doesn't need to be cued to laugh.
* The 1988 ''[[Mighty Mouse]]'' episode "Bat With A Golden Tongue" had Mighty Mouse attempting to help Bat-Bat kick his joke-telling addiction. Bat-Bat's last word to the audience was "Just say no to canned laughter" (which was removed at [[Executive Meddling|McDonald's insistence]]) followed by a pan shot to a busted ceiling (caused from an earlier scene) and canned laughter.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Laughter Tropes]]
[[Category:Comedy Tropes]]
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[[Category:Undead Horse Trope]]
[[Category:Sound FX Tropes]]
▲[[Category:Laugh Track]]
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