Wednesday, June 22, 2011

What is the Point of Laugh Tracks

  Whenever I am watching a sitcom, I tend to notice that there is unnecessary laughter added. If there is anything that I hate when I watch something on TV it is confusing laughter. Really I noticed that sitcoms such as The Office and 30 Rock do not have laugh tracks and that is a good thing. You see laugh tracks confuse you when you should laugh at something funny. Most of the time laugh tracks play over a very unfunny joke.
    Personally I think that laugh tracks are only there to insult the viewers intellect. It's not the 1950s anymore. It's 2011 and the laugh track should have died years ago. Why are laugh tracks added? Well for one reason I believe they are added is to confuse the viewer when the should laugh at something funny. The second reason is that the laugh track is added to something that is really not funny. If a sitcom did not have a laugh track, it would be funnier to watch than one with a laugh track.
    Laugh tracks are an annoyance to all of us. Why do some modern day sitcoms still use this garbage? Well, in my opinion it's them pesky writers who think if they add laughter to a really stupid joke, the audience will laugh too. As I am writing this post, my mom is watching a sitcom downstairs, with a laugh track. I can assure you that the laughter I heard wasn't hers.
     When I see a classic sitcom with a laugh track, I don't know when I should laugh or not to laugh. I really think that a laugh track is the worst thing ever made by a human. No really it is. I was thinking what if the TV show Mystery Science Theater 3000 had a laugh track. If it did, the show would not be as funny as it is. The added laughter would ruin the riffing that Tom Servo, Crow, and Joel or Mike were doing to the movie. A laugh track would have ruined the show completely.
      I think that any classic sitcom released on DVD should be edited to omit the laugh tracks. Why? Well it will make the show's jokes more audible without the damn laugh track. Also without the laugh track, the show would be more hilarious than it would be with the laugh track. So that is why I hate laugh tracks.

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