I do not use laugh tracks

Laugh Tracks

You may have noticed, my writings do not include laugh tracks.
None of them, whether they be sitcoms, movies, books, articles, whatever? I leave laughing solely to the discretion of the beholder.

If laugh tracks were used here, one would have been inserted after that paragraph even though the remark was not funny. Humor does not seem to be a factor.

Laugh tracks, not unlike the blinking lights on your automobiles dashboard, are made for idiots. They are devices to make you do something the producers feel you are not intelligent enough to do on your own. The feeling is laughter is contagious, therefore they compel you to laugh along with them. Sadly many people do, as evidenced by the results when canned laughter is not used. But are they laughing at the joke or the laugh?
The truth is laugh tracks were originally inserted into shows, that were not very funny, to make them seem as though they were.

A laugh track, or canned laughter, is fake laughter previously recorded by an inebriated audience and inserted into the audio sound system to appear as though the dialog is funny.
The fact is canned laughs are actually laughing at a totally different and eminently funnier joke. They are urging the audience to laugh at dialog, which they themselves have not heard.

A Laugh Track Insertion Technician, controls the laughs with a Laugh Track Button, that inserts laughs when called upon. I would like to see that button connected to a few hundred volts and see how they laugh at that. You will not find a listing in the credits.

The laugh track became a standard in mainstream television in the U.S., dominating most prime-time sitcoms from the late 1950s to the late 1970s because viewers in those days had no sense of humor.

They are still used today because producers feel their comedies are not comedic enough to stand on their own and need some form of urging the audience to respond.

I will never use such techniques. I write humor, which does not rely on laughs. An occasional smile is all I hope for.

Cheers,
By George
NoPo8