Canned Laughter- why is there no quality control?

veryangryman

Comedy shows are probably one of my favourite pastimes.

However, there is little worse than seeing a poor/poorly executed joke in a show followed by laughter. I mean these guys are on 6-7 figure sumes per episode. If they arent funny, remove the bit from the show. And if they cant fill the show with good gags, cancel it.

Im sick to death of such drivel. Examples...

Friends with the "funny" awkwardness between Ross and Rachel when they became just mates
Scrubs (not actual canned laughter, but for thinking wed laugh), one big example being that Indian guy who appeared in Season 8- true sign of a show out of ideas

Why are the network guys who allow to air these shows past their sell by date not fired? If its your job to make people laugh, you should stop when the laughter stops.

Rant over :pac:

Antbert

My friend and I tried to laugh at all the canned laughter bits in Two and a Half Men once.

An epic fail.

Bob Z

Maybe they are just having a Laugh

Biggins

Totally agree. Hate it immensely.
If a show is anyway half decent, it will have less of the stuff, not more.
I wonder who was the idiot that though it up!

bluto63

Why did the Flintstones have it? That really made no sense to me!

deisedude

Antbert wrote: »

My friend and I tried to laugh at all the canned laughter bits in Two and a Half Men once.

An epic fail.

I have no idea how people find that show funny. Its so unbelievably bad it makes me want to gouge out my eyes everytime i see Charlie Sheen

Antbert

deisedude wrote: »

I have no idea how people find that show funny. Its so unbelievably bad it makes me want to gouge out my eyes everytime i see Charlie Sheen

Ah so you're the other person who doesn't like it! I was sure there was one.

bluto63

Antbert wrote: »

Ah so you're the other person who doesn't like it! I was sure there was one.

Believe me, there's more than one...

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

There's psychology involved in it, but it's a load of shíte. If it's not funny, it's not funny. The likes of the adams family, the flinstones, Bewitched and more... would be better off with out it and some actually funny parts put in instead...

American TV shows...

amacachi

Antbert wrote: »

Ah so you're the other person who doesn't like it! I was sure there was one.

There's loads, it's ****.

Hank_Jones

amacachi wrote: »

There's loads, it's ****.

It is actually quite ****, I honestly can't remember sitting through an episode and thinking it was actually a good one.

Busi_Girl08

Antbert wrote: »

My friend and I tried to laugh at all the canned laughter bits in Two and a Half Men once.

An epic fail.

http://ch8-beta.collegehumor.com/video:1929403

:cool:

Antbert

Busi_Girl08 wrote: »

http://ch8-beta.collegehumor.com/video:1929403

:cool:

That may be the only time I have ever laughed out loud at Two and a Half Men.

I thank you.

bonerm

veryangryman wrote: »

Why are the network guys who allow to air these shows past their sell by date not fired? If its your job to make people laugh, you should stop when the laughter stops.

I'm pretty sure their job is to generate revenue for whatever network they work for. Quality control is only a secondary issue ... otherwise most of these shows wouldn't have aired in the first place.

Also a lot of these shows are "recorded in front of a live studio audience" so generally what you're getting with your canned-laughter is the actual reaction (or at least a representation of) of what people found funny in the first place (in fact a lot of shows are timed, edited based on these reactions - or lack thereof). So just because you didn't find it funny doesn't mean everyone didn't or wouldn't.

OxfordComma

Antbert wrote: »

Ah so you're the other person who doesn't like it! I was sure there was one.

Don't worry, you're definitely not alone. It's an awful show. Full of crude, crass humour and terrible dialogue (and the canned laughter every second line only makes things worse).

OutlawPete

You can ad 'Canned Ohhs & Ahhhs' in porn to that.

I wanna hear the real noises, if she's French - let her be French, don't translate it :rolleyes:

Course I've only ever seen one movie like that mind you

ejmaztec

We could protest at the use of canned laughter by adding some to something like Schindler's List, and sending copies to all of the US networks.

I gave up watching Friends after a couple of series, because the canned laughter destroyed it.

bonerm

ejmaztec wrote: »

We could protest at the use of canned laughter by adding some to something like Schindler's List, and sending copies to all of the US networks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXq2rsaOxWQ

Busi_Girl08

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDIi0dzmvpE

Just found this. To be honest, I found it really effective in a weird way

Aldito

ejmaztec wrote: »

We could protest at the use of canned laughter by adding some to something like Schindler's List, and sending copies to all of the US networks.

I definitely laughed more in Schindler's list than I have in every 2.5 men episode I've ever seen.

Cool Mo D

bonerm wrote: »

Also a lot of these shows are "recorded in front of a live studio audience" so generally what you're getting with your canned-laughter is the actual reaction (or at least a representation of) of what people found funny in the first place (in fact a lot of shows are timed, edited based on these reactions - or lack thereof). So just because you didn't find it funny doesn't mean everyone didn't or wouldn't.

Any show that is recorded in front of a live studio audience always adds in way more fake laughs on top of that, to make it sound extra funny, because real live audiences don't actually react with massive guffawing at every minor detail.
Also, have you ever noticed how the laughter starts slightly before the punchline?

WoollyRedHat

Two and Half men is awful!! How it one of the most watched comedies at the moment boggles me. Doesn't say much for comedy at the moment.

simu

People are social animals and they tend to imitate the behaviour of the people around them subconsciously; canned laughter tries to capitalise on this but it doesn't work 100% because it's still pretty far from the experience of laughing along with other people in a room. So, canned laughter doesn't follow the parts of the show that the makers have decided are funny; rather, it attempts to induce in the viewer a state that is conductive to producing laughter. That's what I'd guess, at least.

recylingbin

Busi_Girl08 wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDIi0dzmvpE

Just found this. To be honest, I found it really effective in a weird way

That was great.

Cianos

simu wrote: »

People are social animals and they tend to imitate the behaviour of the people around them subconsciously; canned laughter tries to capitalise on this but it doesn't work 100% because it's still pretty far from the experience of laughing along with other people in a room. So, canned laughter doesn't follow the parts of the show that the makers have decided are funny; rather, it attempts to induce in the viewer a state that is conductive to producing laughter. That's what I'd guess, at least.

Yeah I'd agree with that. Laughing is a very social act. In fact, as far as I know you can only laugh with someone if you like them. If you don't like someone, you can't find them funny. Canned laughter gives the illusion that a lot of people are fond of those on the screen. If a lot of people are fond of the people on stage, then there's an immediate subconscious favour towards them too.

thomond2006

One reason why I love Scrubs.

IvySlayer

thomond2006 wrote: »

One reason why I love Scrubs.

I got a million reasons why I love it! Dr Cox is my hero.

bob the bob

Graham Linehan's blog on the subject (The Fr Ted, Black Books, IT Crowd writer)

http://whythatsdelightful.wordpress.com/2008/10/07/canned-laughter-my-least-favourite-urban-myth/

Blisterman

bluto63 wrote: »

Why did the Flintstones have it? That really made no sense to me!

The Flinstones was actually animated live in front of an audience. People were a lot faster at drawing in those days.

bonerm

Blisterman wrote: »

The Flinstones was actually animated live in front of an audience. People were a lot faster at drawing in those days.

I heard it was a terrible strain on the animators wrists tho.

Biggins

bonerm wrote: »

I heard it was a terrible strain on the animators wrists tho.

You have me thinking about why my wife laughs at me all the time in bed! :eek:

:pac:

pickarooney

Biggins wrote: »

You have me thinking about why my wife laughs at me all the time in bed! :eek:

:pac:

'Cause you're a lying wa... wait, what?