this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2023
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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.