Laugh track: Difference between revisions
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Before television, people had always experienced comedy, whether performed live on stage, on radio, or in a movie, as part of an audience. In the early days of television, it was thought that watching recorded comedy at home alone, without hearing the laughter of other attendants, would feel odd to some viewers, and the laugh track was an attempt to reintroduce this familiar element. |
Before television, people had always experienced comedy, whether performed live on stage, on radio, or in a movie, as part of an audience. In the early days of television, it was thought that watching recorded comedy at home alone, without hearing the laughter of other attendants, would feel odd to some viewers, and the laugh track was an attempt to reintroduce this familiar element. |
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The man who made canned laughter what it is today was Charley Douglass (1910-2003), a sound engineer who devised the 'Laff Box'. This was a unique contraption that stood a little over two feet tall and could be played like an organ to replicate different kinds of laughter, from guffaws to belly laughs. The operator could also select particular genders and ages, so a kids' show could have a simulated audience full of giggling children. No one is really sure where the original recordings came from; some say Douglass recorded audiences from I Love Lucy, The Red Skelton Show, or Marcel Marceau's mime act. All of these were heavy on sight gags, which probably made the recording process a little easier. Douglass won a special Emmy for engineering in 1992. |
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==Purpose and use== |
==Purpose and use== |
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Revision as of 18:20, 7 July 2006
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A laugh track, 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.
History
Before television, people had always experienced comedy, whether performed live on stage, on radio, or in a movie, as part of an audience. In the early days of television, it was thought that watching recorded comedy at home alone, without hearing the laughter of other attendants, would feel odd to some viewers, and the laugh track was an attempt to reintroduce this familiar element.
The man who made canned laughter what it is today was Charley Douglass (1910-2003), a sound engineer who devised the 'Laff Box'. This was a unique contraption that stood a little over two feet tall and could be played like an organ to replicate different kinds of laughter, from guffaws to belly laughs. The operator could also select particular genders and ages, so a kids' show could have a simulated audience full of giggling children. No one is really sure where the original recordings came from; some say Douglass recorded audiences from I Love Lucy, The Red Skelton Show, or Marcel Marceau's mime act. All of these were heavy on sight gags, which probably made the recording process a little easier. Douglass won a special Emmy for engineering in 1992.
Purpose and use
From the beginning, laugh tracks were derided as being a "cue" for the viewing audience to laugh at the appropriate time during a TV show, as if they would not know otherwise. TV critics have often claimed that laugh tracks are used to cover up problems with the writing of a TV show, by using artificial "canned" laugh tracks to make the show seem funnier than it actually is. This has led some to change the common phrase "taped in front of a live studio audience" into "live in front of a taped studio audience." The American Broadcasting Company (ABC), among other television networks, was notorious for overusing the laugh track, which was parodied on The Rerun Show's adaptation of a Bewitched script. In the 1970s, the laugh tracks used on shows like Eight is Enough and The Love Boat were looser and much lighter, and these have become the standard on many shows today. [1]
The term "canned laughter" is often misapplied to refer to any audience laughter in a sitcom, but in fact most sitcoms were and still are taped in front of real audiences. However, when jokes misfire, it's common for the subdued laughter of the real audience to be supplemented or completely replaced by pre-recorded laughter - a process known as "sweetening".
Laugh-track-free production
Laugh tracks have even been used in some traditionally animated television series, for which common sense would tell the viewer that a live audience would be impossible, unless the audience were watching the cartoon being played back. In some cases, such as The Flintstones and The Jetsons, the shows have recently aired with the laugh track removed. 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 the Rocky & Bullwinkle segments only).
Laugh-track-free production has been gaining ground in the U.S., especially in more avant-garde situation comedies. 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, Scrubs, The Bernie Mac Show, Curb Your Enthusiasm, My Name is Earl, and, like the UK original, the American version of The Office.
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, but this idea was rejected by the CBS TV network. Eventually a compromise was reached, and the laugh track was omitted from all operating room scenes on the show. 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.
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 the United Kingdom prior to the 2000s most sitcoms were taped before live audiences to provide natural laughter. However it has become more common for contemporary comedies such as The Royle Family and The Office not to feature laughter tracks (although The Catherine Tate Show and Little Britain are recent exceptions to this). The League of Gentlemen was originally broadcast with a laughter track, but after the first two series this was dropped.
Laugh-track-free production has been the norm among Canada's contemporary sitcoms, with the notable exception of The Red Green Show. Canned laughter was used for the first few seasons of the show, until it started to be taped in front of a live audience.