Do you prefer sitcoms with audience laughter or no?

[perthblue]

Simple question.

Do you think the studio sitcoms are dead?

A lot of great sitcoms have been filled before an audience. Fawlty Towers, Seinfeld, Blackadder, Black Books etc.

But a lot of great sitcoms have been filmed with no audience participation. Curb Your Enthusiasm, Peep Show, The Office, Inbetweeners etc.

Which format do you prefer?

 

[DroopStDanny]

Canned laughter is shit.

Live studio audience laughter can be OK so long as it's not forced. It can make you chuckle at an otherwise ho-hum joke.

No laughter is the real litmus test for a genuinely funny show. If you can laugh without being prompted then the producers have achieved their goal. Those you have mentioned are excellent examples and I'd Brooklyn Nine Nine to them.

 

[RelaxMax]

I prefer dark humour

So it's a "no" from me

 

[kickazz]

Audience laughter for silly comedies like Allo Allo can be good.

In general canned laughter is off-putting.

The season of Red Dwarf where they didn't have it seemed out of place though.

 

[Bomberboyokay]

There have been great comedies with a laugh track (Frasier) but overwhelmingly they're just used to prop up shit jokes and tell dumb viewers when something is supposed to be funny. They also limit what kind of jokes can actually be told. The material becomes centered around setups and punchlines. Comedies that use for example surrealism wouldn't really work with a laugh track. I wouldn't even bother watching something made in 2018 with a laugh track: 99% chance it's aimed at ****heads.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

You can watch many of the laughter shows without the canned laughter on YouTube. Pretty interesting.

Friends is about as funny as testicular cancer.

 

[Bomberboyokay]

The people who liked Friends now watch My Kitchen Rules.

 

[Gralin]

The people who liked Friends now watch My Kitchen Rules.

can confirm this is a lie

 

[Beerfish]

No audience. If I find it funny I'll laugh. I don't need direction.

I remember listening (I was in another room) to an episode of friends once. I couldn't make out what was being said but could hear the 'rhythm' of the laughter. It was ridiculous.

 

[Agent93]

You can watch many of the laughter shows without the canned laughter on YouTube. Pretty interesting.

Friends is about as funny as testicular cancer.

As is The Big Bang Theory.

 

[Plugger35]

The Big Bang Theory isn't funny even with a laugh track but it's slightly less annoying without one.

 

[perthblue]

I don't agree that studio sitcoms are by nature 'dumber' or made for dumber audiences. A show like Fawlty Towers or Blackadder works best with a studio audience because it's driven by lively and interesting dialogue, wouldn't quite be the same without. All studio sitcoms are driven by dialogue, which makes the well written ones stand out more. I do agree that a lot of the time that canned laughter is used to conceal poor writing though.

Non-studio sitcoms are more versatile and are therefore more interesting to watch IMO, I don't know if they're funnier though.

Seinfeld and Black Books are two studio sitcoms I can think of that I reckon could have been re-worked into non-studio sitcoms and still have kept the general atmosphere of the show.

 

[Agent93]

The Big Bang Theory isn't funny even with a laugh track but it's slightly less annoying without one.

The problem with no-laugh-track videos is the actors are obviously directed to pause to allow a laugh track to play. Remove that laugh-track and the dialog doesn't flow and you have people sitting/standing awkwardly every pause.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

The people who liked Friends now watch My Kitchen Rules.

I catch a few mins and can’t believe how incredibly unfunny it is. Like it’s not even slightly funny.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

I challenge anybody to laugh even once

 

[perthblue]

Not sure removing the laugh track from a show is really fair proof of it's quality. The show is written and performed with the studio audience in mind, of course it's gonna look worse if you remove that element.

 

[Billy ray]

curb your enthusiasm is greatest comedy show ever. no laugh track. it works

 

[Bomberboyokay]

I don't agree that studio sitcoms are by nature 'dumber' or made for dumber audiences. A show like Fawlty Towers or Blackadder works best with a studio audience because it's driven by lively and interesting dialogue, wouldn't quite be the same without. All studio sitcoms are driven by dialogue, which makes the well written ones stand out more. I do agree that a lot of the time that canned laughter is used to conceal poor writing though.

Non-studio sitcoms are more versatile and are therefore more interesting to watch IMO, I don't know if they're funnier though.

Seinfeld and Black Books are two studio sitcoms I can think of that I reckon could have been re-worked into non-studio sitcoms and still have kept the general atmosphere of the show.

"Laugh track sitcoms are cool. Here's some examples from decades ago."

 

[Run n Spread]

Live audience > Nothing > Canned laughter.

For some reason I just can't get into Curb your Enthusiasm. Love Seinfeld but CYE just doesn't hit the mark imo for some reason.

 

[perthblue]

"Laugh track sitcoms are cool. Here's some examples from decades ago."

Modern studio sitcoms are pretty bad. The most recent example I could think of was Black Books and that finished in 2004.

Aside from being bland and unfunny, the laughter is overpowering. This is especially evident in Big Bang Theory. The audience reactions are so clearly 'moved around' that it becomes unwatchable. The same thing happens on British panel shows too, unfortunately.

 

[Beerfish]

Live audience > Nothing > Canned laughter.

For some reason I just can't get into Curb your Enthusiasm. Love Seinfeld but CYE just doesn't hit the mark imo for some reason.

CYE is pretty much the next incarnation of Seinfeld to my mind. I recently went back and watched the first 2 seasons of Seinfeld and I could see Larry in every character at different times. It was just so obvious when it was his material. At the time Seinfeld originally aired I wouldn't have known LD if I'd tripped over him and I just assumed most of the stuff was Jerry's, I mean the show's called Seinfeld right? How wrong I was.

A show like Fawlty Towers or Blackadder works best with a studio audience because it's driven by lively and interesting dialogue, wouldn't quite be the same without.

I see your point but I'm not so sure I agree with this. Well written stuff will rise to the top regardless of audience/laugh track.

 

[Beerfish]

Aside from being bland and unfunny

wat Black Books was awesome.

 

[perthblue]

wat Black Books was awesome.

I meant that Black Books was the most recent example of a great show with a laugh track that I could remember

 

[Firestarter]

As is The Big Bang Theory.

Someone showed me a clip of a BBT joke with the laughter removed. It feels so awkward to watch the pause.

 

[Firestarter]

Audience laughter for silly comedies like Allo Allo can be good.

In general canned laughter is off-putting.

The season of Red Dwarf where they didn't have it seemed out of place though.

There's that joke in RD where the polymorph had turned into a pair of undies and was deliberately shrinking on Lister. I would have liked to see the genuine footage because I read that the laughter was so prolonged Chris Barrie had to wait to deliver his line. If that's true.