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Make It Stop
The Laugh Track
November 17, 2006
Variety ran a brilliant obituary this week for the life and contributions of the VHS tape -- and so we thought it appropriate to acknowledge respectfully, and then quickly petition to eliminate, the noble run of the laugh track.
It's not you, laugh track, it's us. We've grown up ... we average television viewers ... and we've moved on.
We're more sophisticated now: we like our shows complex and stimulating. We don't want passive, we want to work for our entertainment, we want the laughter teased out of us, and we want to get to the end of an episode and beg for more. We don't need to be instructed as to when we should laugh. We don't need to be told what to feel, either. (But we'll save soundtracks for another "Make It Stop.")
Don't feel bad, laugh track. It isn't only you. The "uh-oh" track, used in case we didn't know that a complication has arisen, isn't welcome anymore either. We're ready to take the training wheels off our television viewing and go it alone.
Gone are the days when we needed shows to supply both the entertainment and the desired response. When we were asked to do nothing more than sit back and listen to disembodied voices have all the fun for us. You relieved us of our duty to listen that intently, pay close attention, or trouble ourselves with questions like: Was that funny? Did that make any sense? Do I even like this show?
You were so kind to take care of that for us for so long, but now we're ready to stand on our own two feet.
With the (hopefully) impending retirement of the laugh track, though, we are struck with a question: What would we have found funny without the guidance of canned laughter? Would Erkel have been as amusing if we hadn't been told he was? Or would he have been a sad, socially -- inept boob, worthy of our pity? Would Balki Bartokomous (or Yakov Smirnoff, if you prefer) have been nothing more than a cruel caricature of an immigrant if the laugh track hadn't encouraged us to giggle at his mangled English?
And what, we ask, would we have made of ALF?
No, laugh track, those days are long gone. Now that the competition for our attention has gotten stiffer, our modern shows are slicker, smarter, and more demanding of an audience that has seen it all, and wants a challenge. Jokes that require thought, attention, and wit.
And, if that sounds like too much to ask, we can always meet again in syndication.
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Recent Comments
December 6, 2006 at 01:50 AM
Catch A Phrase... Both Endearing and Annoying
lizzy: "well about this gem "i did not have sexual intercourse with that woman." president bill clinton about his affair with..."
December 5, 2006 at 03:42 PM
Where Are My Shows?
LANI: "Hi - Any info on shows that really were mostly brilliant-but-cancelled? Such as WEST WING or JUDGING AMY or CHRISTOPHER..."
December 5, 2006 at 01:46 PM
MASH: No more
Linda : "Writing that MASH was not (is not)funny ranks right up there with saying this Administration knows what they are doing..."
December 5, 2006 at 12:45 PM
Catch A Phrase... Both Endearing and Annoying
Lindsey: "So may Simpsons not listed. Don't have a cow man. Hi-didly ho neighborinos I didn't do it Eat my shorts..."
December 5, 2006 at 11:24 AM
Wonderfalls
Brian: "I knew the show was too good to last.Clever and fun just doesn't sell over mean and obnoxious these days.I..."
December 5, 2006 at 08:33 AM
MASH: No more
dumbod: "Actually, there were two MASH's. The first had McLean Stevenson and Wayne Rogers. It was funny and somewhat more true..."
Comments
Mark Jeffries wrote:
You known damn well that most multi-camera sitcoms were shot with live audiences. Even if their response is manipulated, it was still live audiences.
Do you also want David Letterman and Jon Stewart to not work with an audience, either? That's just as much "laugh track" as a sitcom.
posted at November 18, 2006 02:54 PM
Craig wrote:
I agree 100%! Stop telling me when to laugh! It's one thing to be filmed in front of a live audience - that's not what this letter was about. All In The Family, The Honeymooners and even Seinfeld had a different kind of laughter - one that was tolerable. The issue is with someone's finger on the laugh button. 20 Good Years failed miserably because of the button (plus it wasn't funny). Arrested Developement was hilarious without it.
posted at November 20, 2006 08:22 AM
Jay Dees wrote:
Some time ago,I tuned in to a new show one evening when one of the main characters entered a room and said "hello" to the resounding sound of laughter. I thought..What th.... and never watched the show again. It got cancelled about 6 or 8 weeks later.
posted at November 22, 2006 04:27 PM
Ian Lachut wrote:
Even a live audience can be a laugh track though. I give you Will & Grace for one.
For a "live show" like the Daily Show, where the preformers sometimes work OFF of the audience it helps the show. However, when you have a laugh track over say, Sports Night, that clearly hss no audience, its just sad. Other examples; MASH and The Flintstones (that always confused me as a kid).
posted at November 29, 2006 09:44 AM
Nora wrote:
I totally disagree about the soundtrack. I think sometimes an "On the Nose" song can add to the comedy (see Weeds) and that well selected sometimes helps through what would otherwise be too tense a scene. Imagine having to listen to someone breathe and sweat for 5 minutes as they try to reattach a severed leg (see Grey's Anatomy). I agree about the laugh track for the most part. I think 20 Good Years could have been saved if they had dropped the laugh track. I think the absence of a laughtrack would have toned down John Lithgow's schtick and Jeffry Tambor, while a brilliant comedien, just isn't a "punchline" guy. He's too sophisticated for that.
I will say, just to play devil's advocate, that many smart single camera series have struggled to find an audience (Arrested Development, Freaks and Geeks, Sports Night, even the Office and Scrubs early on) from more mainstream tv viewers that don't want to search for the funny and welcome the laugh track even in shows without funny (see King of Queens) and with Networks getting more and more trigger happy when it comes to putting fledgling shows out of their misery, it makes me nervous that more quality shows will disappear before their time. Arrested Develop R.I.P. Sports Night I will remember yee fondly.
posted at December 5, 2006 12:34 AM
Nora wrote:
just read Ian Lachut's post. He's right, my apologies, Sports Night had a ridiculous laughtrack. It all came screaming back to me. Not only was it clear there was no place for a pretend audience, but Sorkin characters banter too quickly and don't really tell punchline jokes. The track cheaped the value of the brilliant subtlety.
On a side note: if you tuned out Studio 60 early, tune back in, for those of you who felt it was too precious or made the industry seem too important, he's toned that down a lot. Give it another chance.
posted at December 5, 2006 12:42 AM
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