Comedy Series

[aizlumzan]

Most sitcoms play this laughing sounds on every jokes. Why is that needed? They dont have to remind us which one is a joke and which one is not. I found 2 sitcoms that dont play this laugh, "scrubs" and "malcolm in the middle". I will laugh whenever the hell I want to.

[qwertykeys]

I'm not quite certain why producers think it necessary to insert laughs. Some of the laughter comes up at the unfunniest moments. I guess it's just a way of telling there's a joke there and a funny expression here... in case the audience missed it.

[ilw]

It was found that people laughed more if there was canned laughter added (as though there was an audience in the background laughing) and so people thought the shows were funnier -> higher ratings. But i agree completely, whenever u hear canned laughter and u don't find the joke funny it just makes the show seem shite.
http://www.mdx.ac.uk/www/psychology/staff/...edy/comedy.html (http://www.mdx.ac.uk/www/psychology/staff/nmartin/comedy/comedy.html)

[neil1967]

canned laughter is terrible it totaly ruins a show. i remember watching m.a.s.h. years ago and i loved it, the humour was dry, full on in some places and subtle and dark in others. i watched it again some years later and they had put canned laughter onto the soundtrack. it just seemed so crass, and was totaly unwatchable
for me from then on. :(