Canned laughter is a pre-recorded soundtrack of laughter added to TV comedies to encourage laughter from the audience. It was first used in the 1950s and has since become more sophisticated. Some shows are recorded in front of a live audience, while others use canned laughter to sweeten the response. Some recent shows have moved away from canned laughter.
Canned laughter, also called the laugh track, is a soundtrack added to television comedies. It is used during parts of the show where the audience would be expected to laugh, and can punctuate one-liners or moments of slapstick comedy. Not all laugh-after-joke TV comedies use canned laughter; some shows tape episodes in front of a live audience.
The first use of canned laughter was in the 1950s television series, The Hank McCune Show. The laughter came from a box invented by Charley Douglass. His sound machine was called the Laff Box and it produced a variety of laughs, from laughter to laughter to tears producing laughter. The laugh types could be played separately, just like playing a sample keyboard.
Today’s laugh track is more sophisticated as sound technology has advanced so much. It can be placed just about anywhere in an episode, and the laugh patterns can vary wildly. After a while, the added laughter soon began to feel the same. For example, it’s pretty easy to recognize the same laughter over and over on shows like The Brady Bunch.
Although canned laughter was most often employed in 30-minute sitcoms, it was also sometimes used in hour-long shows. An unusual use was for the Eight is Enough series, which was often not comical. More often than not, hour-long series like The Love Boat have been punctuated with canned laughter that may have helped a little laugh along with its comedy material.
The idea behind a laugh track is that it causes laughter from an audience at home. Laughter can be pleasantly contagious. However, some find the prospect of a fake laugh somewhat annoying, as it subliminally attempts to get laughs at comedic jokes that may be relatively undeserving.
Some recent comedy television shows have moved away from canned laughter. Both the British and American versions of The Office, for example, did not use it. Some say they like these shows more because they give the viewer the opportunity to laugh freely, without being influenced by an imaginary audience.
Not all shows recorded in front of an audience make full use of audience laughter. If a joke doesn’t seem to elicit a large enough response, laugh tracks can be added. This is usually referred to as “sweetening” the laugh track.
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