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Comment on Do you think that sitcoms on TV today are horribly unfunny? Compared to older ones?

Of course - a sitcom intended to have a laugh track, and edited that way, is always going to sound totally wrong when that element is taken out.

The presence of a laugh track in the original show doesn’t automatically make it bad though. Many genuinely great comedies have had a laugh track included.

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Anonymous_Leaker@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
Some have actual studio audiences.

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- setsneedtofeed@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  I think you’re ignoring the core point of the above comment, which is that the long pauses in the show for the laughs are a planned part of the show. If you’ve never been to a recording, the audience noises aren’t spontaneous. There are signs telling the audience when to make noise.
  
  Live audiences sound better than canned laughs, but in terms of pacing for a sitcom, it’s the same thing.
  
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  - Anonymous_Leaker@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    They had to tell the audience in Seinfeld to stop cheering for Kramer. And Seinfeld is still gold, baby!!!
    
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- aaaa@piefed.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  So did The Big Bang Theory
  
  The audience laughing wasn’t the problem with that show
  
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  - Anonymous_Leaker@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    Yea, they still added laugh tracks digitally, and also cue cards to laugh, as well as have a certain reaction. Yikes…
    
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- sanguinepar@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  Oh yeah, definitely.
  
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MrQuallzin@pie.eyeofthestorm.place ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
The history of the laugh track is pretty interesting

Who Killed the Laugh Track?

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- sanguinepar@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  That was interesting, thanks for the link 👍
  
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swordgeek@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
The presence of a laugh track is irrelevant. The necessity of one for people to find the show funny is a different matter.

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- sanguinepar@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  Agreed - but with the caveat that examples where there was one, but it was later removed, don’t really count, because the way it’s done screws up the timing.
  
  To judge them fairly you’d have to somehow see what the same show was like if intentionally made without laughter from the start. Some might pass, others wouldn’t.
  
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