LAUGH TRACK

A 'laugh track', 'laughter soundtrack', 'laughter track' or 'canned laughter' is a separate soundtrack with the artificial sound of audience laughter, made to be inserted into TV comedy shows and sitcoms, mostly in the United States. The first television show to incorporate a laugh track was ''The Hank McCune Show'' in 1950.^[1]

Contents

History and usage

Laugh-track-free production

Criticism

Faint Praise

See also

Sources

References

History and usage

Before television, audiences often experienced comedy, whether performed live on stage, on radio, or in a movie, in the presence of other audience members. Television producers attempted to recreate this atmosphere in its early days by introducing the sound of laughter or other crowd reactions into the soundtrack of television programs.
Sweetening is a tool in comedy or awards programs that uses a laugh track if there was a lesser reaction than desired. Sweetening is extremely common in Teen Choice Awards and Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards. The ''Kids' Choice Awards'' heavily uses laugh tracks that feature adults despite the fact that the audience are actually pre-teens. Laugh tracks are used extensively in Disney Channel Original Series sitcoms such as ''That's So Raven'', ''The Suite Life of Zack and Cody'', ''Hannah Montana'', and ''Cory in the House''. This is also true for Disney's top competitor, Nickelodeon, which is now forced to use laugh tracks on shows such as ''Just Jordan'' and ''Drake and Josh'' due to their decision to do away with their now-defunct original studios.
Laugh tracks have been used in some traditionally animated television series, which do not have live audiences. ''The Flintstones'' and ''The Jetsons'' originally aired with laugh tracks, but later aired with the laugh track removed.^[2] Other cartoons that at least originally had laugh tracks include ''The Pink Panther Show'', ''Scooby-Doo'', and the very first episodes of ''Rocky and His Friends''.
In East Asia, laugh tracks are often loud and exaggerated in comedy-variety shows despite it being filmed with a small live audience. Hong Kong game show Minutes to Fame is one of the recognizable shows that uses a large number of laugh tracks, which sometimes cover up the singing or dialogue.
A well-known gag often used in satirical comedy is the use of a laughter track which cuts off unnaturally abruptly after each burst of laughter or applause, emphasizing its artifice and therefore its implied insincerity. Shows such as ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' pioneered this gag.
In some cases, laugh tracks are used as a source of humor in themselves. For example, one video game, Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon, features a laugh track after certain lines of text dialog used for humorous effect, particularly since there being
a live audience would be impossible for a video game.

Laugh-track-free production

Larry Gelbart, creator of the TV series ''M
★ A
★ S
★ H'', has said that he initially wanted the show to air entirely without a laugh track ("Just like the actual Korean War", he is said to have remarked dryly). However, CBS rejected the idea. Eventually a compromise was reached, and the producers of the series were not required to include a laugh track on operating room scenes on the show. As a result few scenes in the operating room contain canned laughter. Some syndicated and international versions omitted the laugh track completely, and the DVD release gives the viewer a choice of laughing or non-laughing soundtracks. ^[3] Gelbart wasn't the first producer to refuse to use a laugh track on a CBS show, however. That distinction belongs to Ross Bagdasarian of Alvin and the Chipmunks fame. When he created ''The Alvin Show'' in 1961, Bagdasarian refused to use a laugh track, reasoning that if the show was funny, the viewers would laugh without being prompted. The show was cancelled after one season.
In a similar case, ''Sports Night'' premiered with a laugh track, against the wishes of show creator Aaron Sorkin, but the laugh track became more subtle as the season progressed and was completely removed at the start of the second season. In some cases a laugh track was needed to maintain continuity, as portions of each episode were filmed in front of a live audience, the remainder being filmed without an audience present.
Alan Spencer's ''Sledge Hammer!'' aired with a laugh track for the first 12 episodes including the pilot, but Spencer was not impressed by ABC editing the episodes. Later on, the video releases had all the laugh tracks removed.^[4]
Though the use of canned laughter reached its peak in the 1960s, the trend began to reverse with the 1971 debut of ''All in the Family''. As proclaimed over the closing credits each week ("''All in the Family'' was filmed before a live studio audience") the sitcom relied solely on live, unprompted audience response.
Laugh-track-free production has been gaining ground in the US since the early 1990s. ''The Larry Sanders Show'' won critical praise for not including a laugh track.^[5] Such shows are often produced in the more expensive "drama style," using on-location shooting and high production values, as opposed to the standard multi-camera sitcom sound stage. Recent live action American sitcoms that adopted this style include ''Arrested Development'', ''Malcolm in the Middle'', ''Curb Your Enthusiasm'', ''My Name Is Earl'', ''The Bernie Mac Show'', ''The Office'', ''Scrubs'', ''30 Rock'', ''Flight of the Conchords'', and ''It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia''.
In the United Kingdom prior to the 2000s most sitcoms were taped before live audiences to provide natural laughter. Other comedies, such as the ''The Royle Family'' and ''The Office'' which are presented in the mode of cinema verite rather than in the format of a traditional sitcom, do not contain a laugh track.
''The League of Gentlemen'' was originally broadcast with a laughter track, but after the first two series this was dropped.^[6] The pilot episode of the satirical series ''Spitting Image'' was also broadcast with a laughter track. This idea was quickly dropped as it was felt that the series worked better without one. Some later editions, in 1992 (Election Special) and 1993 (two episodes) did use a studio audience, and therefore a laughter track, as the format of these editions included a spoof ''Question Time''.
Although some contemporary Canadian sitcoms are laugh track-free (e.g., "The Newsroom", ''Corner Gas'', etc.), many still rely on laugh tracks in some form (''Air Farce'' and ''The Red Green Show'' both tape in front of a live audience, but rely heavily on canned laughter).
There is an "in-between" category, where there ''is'' a separate "laugh track," but of ''"genuine"'' laughter. For example, many scenes of Yorkshire's ''Last of the Summer Wine'' are filmed outdoors, and even in indoor scenes the cast are clearly not reacting to audience laughter. However, the shows' producers, while confirming that the show is filmed without an audience, insist that the laughter track is not "manufactured" but instead is a recording of the genuine response of a studio audience to whom the completed episode is shown.

Criticism

Laugh tracks have been derided by some critics as insulting to the intelligence of the viewers of a show, because it seems to tell the audience when they should laugh. Some also feel that laugh track placement and intensity serve as strong suggestions as to how certain real-life situations should be viewed and handled. The ability to tailor specific audible elements within a laugh track, as well as careful placement and timing, are viewed by some as subliminal messages that relate to the subject matter being used.

Faint Praise

Executive producer for Sid and Marty Krofft, Si Rose, convinced the Kroffts to use laugh tracks on their puppet shows such as H.R. Pufnstuf, The Bugaloos, Lidsville, and others. In a recent interview, he states "The laugh track was a big debate, they (the Kroffts) said they didn't want to do it, but with my experience with night-timers, night-time started using laugh tracks, and it becomes a staple, because see a show and there's a big laugh everytime because of the laugh track, and then when you see a show that's funny and there's no laugh because of no laugh track, it becomes a handicap, so I convinced them of that. Good or bad."

See also

★ Claque

★ List of television comedies without laugh tracks

Sources

★ TVParty.com - The Laugh Track

References

1. Pollick, Michael: What is a Laugh Track?, Retrieved on May 31, 2007
2. Glenn II, Ben: The Laugh Track, Retrieved on August 12, 2007
3. http://www.avrev.com/dvd/revs/mash3.shtml
4. SHOW HISTORY, Retrieved on May 31, 2007
5. Judge, Michael [1], Retrieved on May 31, 2007
6. Andrews, Scott: Review - The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse, Retrieved on May 31, 2007