Thursday, October 9, 2008
Some things, for whatever reason, just trigger a rage inside people. For some, it's hearing their shrill, ear-shattering alarm clock go off. For others, it's the very sight of their ex-lover who left them for that suave Spaniard who didn't even really appreciate her at all, and anyway how could she possibly understand a word he said because his accent was so thick?
Ahem.
For me, what truly incites a fiery maelstrom of anger in the innermost depths of my long-forsaken soul is the sitcom laugh track.
A few weeks ago, another season of “The Office” premiered on NBC for a gaggle of fans who watch intently every week.
Later this month, “30 Rock” will begin its third season after winning the Emmy for Best Comedy Series in its first two. And although it struggled in the ratings during its all-too-brief run, “Arrested Development” has found a rabid fanbase postmortem. More than 30,000 people on Facebook are fans of the “Arrested Development” movie — which hasn't even been confirmed yet.
What do these three comedies have in common other than critical acclaim, exemplary writing and incredible casts? No canned laffs.
The laugh track originated in the 1950s, presumably as a McCarthyian measure to make sure everybody laughed at only the most American of jokes.
Eventually it became a standard practice, as even shows with studio audiences chose to enhance the laff experience — or “laffsperience” — by adding a laugh track after jokes that weren't quite what one might call “funny at all.”
It quickly became a safety net for unfunny, unoriginal sitcoms. It was so successful in suckering people into laughing at anything that soon network executives felt it was absolutely necessary and started slapping them onto shows that didn't need the assistance. Shows, such as “M*A*S*H” and Aaron Sorkin's “SportsNight” were accompanied by laugh tracks against their respective creators' wishes. I absolutely love “NewsRadio,” the woefully underwatched ’90s classic, but whenever I watch it, the wholly unneeded laugh track plants that little seed of contempt in my heart.
So why are laugh tracks so successful?
“Laugh tracks capitalize on the fact that we have specialized cells in the brain, ‘mirror neurons,’ that are highly responsive to things happening to other people, and put us in a similar state,” Stephen Ilardi, associate professor of clinical psychology, said. “When we hear other people laughing, our brains automatically go into laugh mode as well.”
How cruel! The executives who pour syrupy laugh tracks all over their stacks of poor sitcom pancakes aren't really treating you to a sweet tele-breakfast at all. They're preying on your innermost psychological insecurities.
I hope the success of “30 Rock” and “The Office” are indicative of a trend that will lead to the eventual extinction of the laugh track.
It's not only completely unwarranted — it's insulting. This generation's sense of irony is strong. We don't need laughter recorded 50 years earlier to tell us when something is funny.
The innovative writing and style of the laugh track-less “The Larry Sanders Show” in the ’90s and “All in the Family” in the ’70s were ahead of their time, but the inventiveness those shows displayed is increasingly becoming the norm.
Broad sitcoms are losing schedule space in favor of shows that require the viewer to have a finely tuned sense of humor. The laugh track is really a symbol of a mediocre product that has plagued networks for decades. We're better off as television watchers without it.
Of course, there's still work to do. The only three-camera laugh track sitcom that was nominated for the Best Comedy Series Emmy this year — the despicable “Two and a Half Men” — is the most-watched comedy in the country.
Just typing that made my blood boil.
— Nichols is an Overland Park sophomore in creative writing.
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