this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2023
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The it crowd
Have a good binge
It's one of the last of the laugh track comedies. Wondering what kids of the future are going to think about shows like that.
they had a live audience. at least for the basement/office scenes
Laugh tracks and audiences are the worst.
If your show requires prompting on when to laugh, it's probably not as funny as you think.
Many shows just aren't that funny when you take out the laughing, and if you were to cut all the awkward pauses the show would be 7 minutes shorter.
"rolling laughter" is a technique you have to learn as a live performer for a reason. TV shows at the time had to bridge the gap as the 80s/90s invention of stand up as an art form set the tone for how comedy should be.
It's not that it was always bad, it's just that culture changed. Same as how a Jacobite audient would find it real weird we watch theatre inside(!), sitting down(!!) and not talking during the show(!!!).
there are shows where it works (Frasier) and shows where it's horrible (Frasier 2023)
The IT Crowd is objectively hilarious without the laugh track. It's a British thing. They have laugh tracks or studio audiences on most programs.
I know you are right about all of this, and yet I will still watch shows like the old Addams Family while I'm doing something else just to have a distraction
I still have a couple shows I enjoy despite the laugh track... Just in general I would prefer not to watch them, and I'm unlikely to give a new show half a chance if it has one.
Just maybe avoid watching it in a way that the creator profits from.
Why’s that?
An episode of the IT Crowd had a B story that was kinda transphobic. It was minor enough and the show was popular enough he probably could've easily just apologized and that would've been that. But instead, in 2013 after said episode was brought up and criticized for being transphobic to the creator, said creator tripled down and became a full on anti-trans "activist" who makes even JK Rowling seem benign by comparison.
Ohh dang. Thanks for the explain. I’ve never seen IT Crowd, and now I have a good reason not to. Fuck that guy.
He's also actively picking fights with supporters of trans and non-binary people, such as recently David Tennant of all people.
It doesn't seem to be streaming anywhere, so anyone who doesn't have an excessive amount to spend on a TV series won't be giving any profits to the creators.