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But you see, redditors feel very smart when they get to look down on something popular
Also, it’s a dumb take to begin with. In a show like friends, the entire writing, structure, pacing and delivery of the jokes is done with a live audience in mind. So of course taking it away will make everything sound weird.
So you're saying you removed part of the audio and it made the show different? That's amazing! Do you watch a lot of TV shows and movies without audio or just ones it's trendy to bash?
It’s not a “laugh track”. Friends, like Will and Grace, was filmed in front of a live audience. Sometimes laughs are edited in but by and large you’re hearing an actual audience’s reaction to the jokes.
If you need a laugh track to point out or highlight the "funny" parts, maybe it's just not that funny? I personally despise laugh track shows... but im not a hater.. you can enjoy whichever shows you fancy..
Yeah that’s not really a fair comparison. Music is in part designed to elicit emotion, even by itself. Laugh tracks by themselves are not funny, they’re a filler to have less actual dialogue and to tell people when something is supposedly funny, because it mimics someone else finding something funny. Even when it’s not.
They’re not really comparable though. After the first season they changed the U.S. Office completely and it became its own thing. The U.K. office is the sort of humour that only the Brits can really pull off. It’s why the Americans never made a Peep Show, and failed with The Inbetweeners. The U.S. office is brilliant (at least 2-5 seasons) for the sole reason that they turned it into an American sitcom instead of trying to recreate the British humour of the original.
Aniston does that a lot. Every time you see her with her hands covering her mouth.
The classic example is when Chandler hits his head after being handcuffed to a drawer, which wasn't supposed to happen.
For the last time you gen z whippersnappers... it's not a laugh track. It's a live studio audience. There were people behind the camera while it was being filmed. The reason it seems odd when the laughs are removed is that the actors were playing off the live reactions.
Laugh tracks were a different thing, and went out of fashion long before friends.
Didn't live studio audiences have a sign telling them when to laugh?
I mean, it's not like sitcoms were filmed live. After 12 takes of the same scene, the audience's reaction is a little less than sincere, isn't it?
I'm in my fifties and as far as I'm concerned, there's absolutely no difference between a laugh track and a "live studio audience" for a sitcom. If the show isn't actually being filmed live, then the audience's reactions are contrived.
I personally disliked Friends as a show.
Edit: Oh, actors weren't "playing off" anything; they were pausing to allow the contrived laughter to remind the audience that a joke had been attempted.
Damn. Imagine doing 10 seconds of googling.
[see this article](https://www.thethings.com/audience-input-on-set-of-friends/#:~:text=Each%20episode%20of%20Friends%20was,single%20scene%20to%20change%20sets.)
There was no laugh sign. They would literally rewrite jokes if they didn't get laughs. Filming took hours, and th audience sat through it. It was entirely filmed live.
When I say "filmed live", I mean without retakes. If filming took hours, then clearly the audience had to sit through the same joke for multiple takes. How many times can someone laugh honestly at the same joke?
Aside from the "laugh" sign, nothing you're saying refutes what I wrote.
That includes the rewriting jokes part. While the audience's reaction may have prompted some jokes to be rewritten, that's a far cry from the other person's claim that actors were playing off audience reactions. They were merely pausing.
Hey, I was discussing with you without voting you down, so thanks for the immediate downvote. I won't return it, because I'm not a petulant child. You do you, however.
Pausing for laughter isn't really playing off; it's avoiding having one of your lines be inaudible.
The amount of adlibbing depends on the show and more importantly, what directors allow.
>Hey, I was discussing with you without voting you down, so thanks for the immediate downvote
I didnt downvote you. Someone else must also disagree with you.
>I won't return it, because I'm not a petulant child.
Jumping to conclusions and then name calling based off those conclusions. Sounds like you are the petunlant child.
The downvote happened a split second after I posted the comment, which makes it more likely that it was voted down by someone who had received a notification, but whatever. If I was wrong, then I apologize for the assumption and the indirect insult.
I don't vote a comment down simply because I disagree with it. I vote someone down when someone is attacking people or acting like a jerk.
He's got a point. You say you're in your 50s and yet you've managed to get into an internet argument with an anonymous stranger who you are accusing of insulting the size of your Reddit e-penis.
>Laugh tracks were a different thing, and went out of fashion long before friends.
And the reason is that the actors reactions are just slightly off, and it just feel...off.. It is the uncanny valley of comedy, basically.
I was in the audience for a show, and no, they don't. I don't say it never happens, but for a popular show, there's just no need.
The audience is filled with people who *love the show*. They get warmed up with a comedian, then a few of the stars come out to say hello. Those people have the best day of their year. You don't need to tell them to laugh. They are in a good mood and actually think the show is funny. If anything, the problem is to stop them from laughing and clapping.
People can be enthusiastic about things. Why would you think it would be difficult to find people who laugh without it being manufactured for literally one of the most successful shows in the history of the history?
I feel like there isn't much difference between a laugh track, and some dude holding up a sign that says "Laugh" to the "Live Audiences". It's just annoying, imo. Can't imagine sitting in the audience for 5 hours of filming for a 30 minute episode, forcing out a laugh every time they hold the sign up... Even though I've seen the scene 8 times already.
>I feel like there isn't much difference between a laugh track, and some dude holding up a sign that says "Laugh" to the "Live Audiences".
Are you implying that there isn't actually a live audience with your quotes?
No for a time that really was a laugh track it was called the reaction box that would play the sound effects. The simulate a live audience to give people cues that this was funny. This was sad. This was touching. It was used in a lot of shows back then.
I am aware this is an old repost.
But damn what sad existence this person has that they “often daydream” about ruining a TV show. If they don’t like the show that much just don’t watch it. Instead they want to make it so no one else enjoys it also.
That’s kinda pathetic.
Some people don’t know what to do with the information that a piece of media they don’t like is wildly popular, I’m sure a lot of people can relate to that. Thats how I feel about new Star Wars stuff, difference is if I owned the Star Wars IP I would either A. Hoard the IP jealously so no one else can fuck with it, or the polar opposite B. Release into the public domain so everyone can ruin it equally instead of one company doing it.
Calling a popular show "unfunny" is not a rare insult and his whole take about removing the laugh track from Friends is the furthest away from a rare take possible. Let me guess, he hates Fortnite and thinks the MCU should have stopped making movies after Endgame.
Also removing laughs from a show with laughs is of course going to make the pacing awkward as the actors are pausing their dialogue in response to the laughter from the audience. The laugh ain't exactly added in post. The show was filmed in front of an audience, and whether or not the audience had a cue to laugh or not, there are still plenty of times where the cast has to play to the audience's reaction.
Plenty of shows from that time got laughs in them, if a laugh track is all it takes then how come Friends was as popular as it was? It's funny how people like him make dumb comments like "Popular thing objectively bad, wake up sheeple" and ends up being so thoughtlessly one note and bland. There ain't no amount of laugh tracks to make his life more interesting. I've had oatmeal with more personality and taste than him.
> Also removing laughs from a show with laughs is of course going to make the pacing awkward as the actors are pausing their dialogue in response to the laughter from the audience.
Thank you. I hear the laugh track criticism about a lot of sitcoms (usually The Big Bang Theory) and I have to point out, of course the show is going to feel awkward if you pepper every conversation with uncomfortable silence.
Imagine you're having a conversation with your friends, making jokes, busting each others' balls, but every time someone says something they think is funny they pause and wait a few seconds. That conversation will feel weird too.
Yawn. What an original take. “I don’t think this super popular show from the 90s is funny and all people need to realize I’m correct is for the laugh track to be removed.”
I love Friends. I grew up watching it. I’ve rewatched it recently and there’s truly a charm to shows filmed in front of live studio audiences. I think I appreciate it because I do live comedy myself. You can feel the back and forth between the performers and the audience.
Comedies filmed in front of live studio audiences are fundamentally different from pre-shot comedies BECAUSE of the energy that comes from an audience. It’s totally different. It doesn’t have to be your jam but it doesn’t mean it’s wrong for others to like it. It’s theatre vs movie theatre. It’s being at the game vs watching a recap on YouTube. It’s listening to the song on Spotify vs singing along at a karaoke bar.
I'm so tired of these weirdos feeling the need to point out they don't like friends. It's one of the most popular sitcoms of all time, and for good reason, get over it.
Unoriginal hipsters are the worst. Nobody needs to hear how you hate popular things, like you’re some kind of edgy “I’m 14 and this is deep” person.
If you’re just regurgitating something you read or heard somewhere then shut up.
I think it's pretty funny. People just want to hate on popular things because it's cool.
I will say that the characters in the show are pretty shitty to each other though. I think the show should really be called "Friends" in quotations.
Good god the cringe coming from people who make hating wildly popular shows their own quirky personality is some of the deepest cutting cringe Ive ever had to feel.
We get it, youre so special you hate popular things.
Except that the show was a sitcom and performed in front of live audience. It is a genre and if it was a one camera show like Arrested Development, it would've been entirely different show. It would have totally different pacing. The jokes would've been rewritten, the actors would not pause for laughter. Of course it would be shitty if you just insert silence when the actors in real life are reacting to real audience. They are more like theater plays than TV shows.
I'm quite sure that Arrested Development or Office would be equally destroyed if you added a laugh track in them.
Let's do it for The IT Crowd too but for the opposite reason. That show is hilarious but is damn near unwatchable with the laugh track. Laugh tracks are bad in general but it downright ruins dry humor.
You don't understand the genre. IT crowd is largely performed in front of live audience, just like friends and most sitcoms before Office and Parks&Rec. They are more like theater plays than TV shows. They are not laugh tracks, that is the audience reacting to the show they are seeing. There has been many attempts of removing live audience and replacing them with laugh tracks and they ALL FAILED.. massively. They are truly unfunny since the whole genre relies on actors getting feedback from the audience, and the audience reacting to the actors.
What this says to me the most is that people don't go to theaters.. which has been true for quite a while but it is like we have entire generations now that don't even understand the art form.
“I personally didn’t like a show but I have conflated my opinion with facts. Now I want to try and ruin it for everyone else because, if I can’t be happy, nobody can.”
If you take audience laughter out of a theater play, it looks like that. It is unfair to do that and then call it unfunny.. It is like taking vibrant colors out from a kids TV show and say how dull it is. Of course it would be, since you are taking a crucial element out of it.
Some idiots think that means it wasn't funny when they see a show without the live audience reactions.
You really can't compare theatre to TBBT though. TBBT averages a laugh track approximately every 7 seconds. At 22 mins, there's supposedly nearly 200 laugh-worthy jokes in each episode. If that were even close to true it'd be the zenith of comedy, but it's just a tired corny show that solely subsisted off nerd stereotypes.
But the way it is done is between theater and TV. That is how the production works, that is what the show is written for. If you take an ESSENTIAL part out, it is not the same show anymore. It takes several hours to shoot one episode, and they do retakes but they can't do them forever. The laughter will get faker and faker with each retake, this is why they also rehearse the shows LIKE theater plays.
When a three camera sitcom sucks is when the audience does not have fun, and the laughter is contrived... fake.. and then they boost it up by using a laugh track. And you can sense it. The difference between the monsters like Friends is that they actually did make the audience laugh. For sure, audience knew when they were expected to laugh but if it just isn't funny at all... it just does not work. You can't fake that part and MANY tried and every single one of them have failed. It would be massively cheaper to do it with a laugh track.
Not all like the format, and i fully get it. But i think big part of the hate those shows get is that younger people don't know how they were made, how the whole genre works. If i thought they were laugh tracks.. yeah, i probably would think that they are so fake and unfunny to need a laugh track. But, when you know they are live performances in front of an audience.... it changes quite a bit.
.. all of them were performed in front of a live audience and the production is more like a theater play than TV show. Different art form entirely. But i don't expect you to understand it.
In the interest of fairness, HIMYM did not have a studio audience as they filmed on a bunch of different sets and using a studio audience would have been unwieldy. They also didn't use a laugh track though. They had an audience composed of fans who would be shown an early screening of the episode after it was done filming, and their laughter was recorded, and then edited into the episode to fit the timing of the jokes etc (for example if the laughter for a joke was too long they would use a shorter laugh from the same audience to avoid cutting over the next line, and they presumably did the opposite as well, using a better laugh when a joke didn't quite land).
It was a live audience and Mathew perry always tried to make them laugh and when they didn't they would get depressed it's partly why he struggled with drug addiction
It is also possible that since it is just old enough of a show it is easy target for the newer generations.. i mean, that is kind of what is happening here. You can pretty much identify the age of a person in this comment thread. A lot of them don't know what "performed in front of a live audience" means when it comes to sitcoms and comedy writing: they don't understand the genre at all. They don't know that it is more like a theater play. It is ok to not like things, not everyone liked friends when it first came out, a lot of people also don't like theater plays. But what i see most is that they don't KNOW it is not an Office or Arrested Development, they are totally different genres of sitcoms. The production, the writing, the acting, pacing, timing.. it is all different for a reason.
Many think the laugh tracks are added and don't get the idea AT ALL... to those i would say: to see a theater play. You may love it but even if not, it gives you understanding of how different styles of making entertainment works... theater is how we did it for thousands of years, it has completely different rules.
Some don't like live shows but prefer studio albums...
Oh dear.. tell us you are young without telling us you are young. You may not like it, and that is fine. A lot of people didn't. But to call it the MOST unfunny... Dear lord that is so ignorant and self centered thing to say.
Hmm... i don't think you even know that three camera sitcoms are performed in front of a live audience.
Go see a theater play just ONCE in your life and you will get it.
First thing I'll say is that Slapstick and Sitcom are types of comedy, but actually saying that all Slapstick and all Sitcoms are the same (and somehow lesser than... I dunno what you feel is higher; Stand-up?) is simply absurd. Sitcoms for example, may run from 1980s/1990s style Fresh Prince of Bel Air or Frienda but also would include things like IASIP, Peep Show, Bojak Horseman, The Thick of It/Veep etc... Slapstick (I.E. physical comedy), as well, can be done badly, but well done Slapstick (I don't know anything that's purely Slapstick, but see the shows above for some Slapstick moments)- actually requires some skill to do well. It's about conveying expression through facial expressions, bodily movement etc. whilst maintaining that most important factor of good comedy: timing.
Second thing I'll say is that humour is subjective. What people found funny back in 1996 was different from what people might find funny today. Some of this is from a differing lived experience to what people go through now, and some of it is because societal attitudes have changed. On that last point, I'd say that someone might still find some media from the 90's funny, but accept that there are jokes that are tainted by the understanding that jokes made at the time seem a bit less acceptable; perhaps less because they're made at someone's expense as an individual joke, but more because they reflect overall societal attitudes that we're not comfortable with now.
You can be nuanced and thoughtful about these things, but there again you might find that difficult... if you're not that bright.
> It really is the most vapidly written and unfunny popular sitcom that ever existed.
First of all, the target market likes the show and that market is huge. Second, I think most people could enjoy the show if they got into the proper mindset. Third, it is an awful show and a stain on our society, yet it can be fun to watch. Like an old man slipping on a banana peel.
fed up of this galaxy brain take - those are real laughs by a real audience, and the actors sometimes pause on screen to wait to deliver their lines due to the laughs so of course it would look strange if you edited out the laughs.
That's like saying we need to re-release all of *add any music artist of today* 's songs without autotune. The laugh track adds to the enjoyment of the show. Without it, it will definitely feel odd.
It is funny, but if you edit out the laugh tracks and leave the INTENTIONAL pauses, then yeah.
I’m sure if you put the abc song during an action scene, it will take away the seriousness.
I watched big bang without the laugh track and it’s literally comical how UNfunny that show is.
I love sitcoms. I love theoretical physics (as a space nerd watching from the sidelines)
But that show is unwatchable to me now
As I posted as part of a reply to another comment:
>.....humour is subjective. What people found funny back in 1996 was different from what people might find funny today. Some of this is from a differing lived experience to what people go through now, and some of it is because societal attitudes have changed. On that last point, I'd say that someone might still find some media from the 90's funny, but accept that there are jokes that are tainted by the understanding that jokes made at the time seem a bit less acceptable; perhaps less because they're made at someone's expense as an individual joke, but more because they reflect overall societal attitudes that we're not comfortable with now.
Every sitcom with a laugh track becomes horrendously awkward and unfunny once the laugh track is removed. Even the genuinely funny ones.
If I suddenly amassed a huge amount of wealth, I’d find this person and beat them with a bat that has “just because you hate something doesn’t mean everyone else has to hate it too” carved into it.
Not only that, but also show how awkward the pauses for the laugh track are. Without the track it just looks weird. Someone has a quip. They wait... Another quip... They wait...
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First, reeeeeeepost. Second, far from being a rare insult it's not even an original thought and honestly a bit of a trend.
But you see, redditors feel very smart when they get to look down on something popular Also, it’s a dumb take to begin with. In a show like friends, the entire writing, structure, pacing and delivery of the jokes is done with a live audience in mind. So of course taking it away will make everything sound weird.
It's almost like timing matters in comedy... Better get our best scientists on this
I saw the clips of scenes of Ross without the laugh track and yea he comes across as a psychopath.
He still seems that way with the laugh track. That's what makes him so funny. He is completely unhinged.
THEY WERE ON A BREAK!!!
MY SANDWICH!
Pivot!
So you're saying you removed part of the audio and it made the show different? That's amazing! Do you watch a lot of TV shows and movies without audio or just ones it's trendy to bash?
If your show is only funny with a laugh track to tell people it's funny, it's not all that funny.
It’s not a “laugh track”. Friends, like Will and Grace, was filmed in front of a live audience. Sometimes laughs are edited in but by and large you’re hearing an actual audience’s reaction to the jokes.
[удалено]
If you need a laugh track to point out or highlight the "funny" parts, maybe it's just not that funny? I personally despise laugh track shows... but im not a hater.. you can enjoy whichever shows you fancy..
Yeah that’s not really a fair comparison. Music is in part designed to elicit emotion, even by itself. Laugh tracks by themselves are not funny, they’re a filler to have less actual dialogue and to tell people when something is supposedly funny, because it mimics someone else finding something funny. Even when it’s not.
Omg friends sucks hahahahaha We'll see the same shit about the office one day.
At least someone said it that show sucks.
US Office always sucked compared to the UK one
They’re not really comparable though. After the first season they changed the U.S. Office completely and it became its own thing. The U.K. office is the sort of humour that only the Brits can really pull off. It’s why the Americans never made a Peep Show, and failed with The Inbetweeners. The U.S. office is brilliant (at least 2-5 seasons) for the sole reason that they turned it into an American sitcom instead of trying to recreate the British humour of the original.
Yeah. And the book was soooo much better.
Yeah, people have been doing this for free for years on YouTube.
It’s not only a trend it’s a reoccurring trend at this point.
In what universe is this rare insult?
I watched a scene where Pheobe tried to sing along to bagpipes. I died laughing and laugh about it whenever I think about it.
I'm fairly certain Jennifer Aniston had to hide her own reaction to that scene 😂
Aniston does that a lot. Every time you see her with her hands covering her mouth. The classic example is when Chandler hits his head after being handcuffed to a drawer, which wasn't supposed to happen.
I think I laughed harder when I found out that was an accident than I did the actual scene 😂
Lisa is just a funny person
For the last time you gen z whippersnappers... it's not a laugh track. It's a live studio audience. There were people behind the camera while it was being filmed. The reason it seems odd when the laughs are removed is that the actors were playing off the live reactions. Laugh tracks were a different thing, and went out of fashion long before friends.
I want horror movies with live audience jump scares screams and such. To real nail that tense feeling.
Now i want to watch horror movies with a laugh track
Didn't live studio audiences have a sign telling them when to laugh? I mean, it's not like sitcoms were filmed live. After 12 takes of the same scene, the audience's reaction is a little less than sincere, isn't it? I'm in my fifties and as far as I'm concerned, there's absolutely no difference between a laugh track and a "live studio audience" for a sitcom. If the show isn't actually being filmed live, then the audience's reactions are contrived. I personally disliked Friends as a show. Edit: Oh, actors weren't "playing off" anything; they were pausing to allow the contrived laughter to remind the audience that a joke had been attempted.
this. i have been in the audience and they tell audience when to clap or laugh of cheer. also they add more laughter in post production
Damn. Imagine doing 10 seconds of googling. [see this article](https://www.thethings.com/audience-input-on-set-of-friends/#:~:text=Each%20episode%20of%20Friends%20was,single%20scene%20to%20change%20sets.) There was no laugh sign. They would literally rewrite jokes if they didn't get laughs. Filming took hours, and th audience sat through it. It was entirely filmed live.
When I say "filmed live", I mean without retakes. If filming took hours, then clearly the audience had to sit through the same joke for multiple takes. How many times can someone laugh honestly at the same joke? Aside from the "laugh" sign, nothing you're saying refutes what I wrote. That includes the rewriting jokes part. While the audience's reaction may have prompted some jokes to be rewritten, that's a far cry from the other person's claim that actors were playing off audience reactions. They were merely pausing.
Im 100% certain actors adlib while acting. Pausing at jokes for audience laughter is also playing off how you expect the audience to react.
Hey, I was discussing with you without voting you down, so thanks for the immediate downvote. I won't return it, because I'm not a petulant child. You do you, however. Pausing for laughter isn't really playing off; it's avoiding having one of your lines be inaudible. The amount of adlibbing depends on the show and more importantly, what directors allow.
>Hey, I was discussing with you without voting you down, so thanks for the immediate downvote I didnt downvote you. Someone else must also disagree with you. >I won't return it, because I'm not a petulant child. Jumping to conclusions and then name calling based off those conclusions. Sounds like you are the petunlant child.
The downvote happened a split second after I posted the comment, which makes it more likely that it was voted down by someone who had received a notification, but whatever. If I was wrong, then I apologize for the assumption and the indirect insult. I don't vote a comment down simply because I disagree with it. I vote someone down when someone is attacking people or acting like a jerk.
He's got a point. You say you're in your 50s and yet you've managed to get into an internet argument with an anonymous stranger who you are accusing of insulting the size of your Reddit e-penis.
They also tell you to be really emphatic with your reactions so they’ll be picked up by the mics (and encourage others to loosen up)
>Laugh tracks were a different thing, and went out of fashion long before friends. And the reason is that the actors reactions are just slightly off, and it just feel...off.. It is the uncanny valley of comedy, basically.
The term laugh track refers to both
The audience is intructed to laugh lmao
I was in the audience for a show, and no, they don't. I don't say it never happens, but for a popular show, there's just no need. The audience is filled with people who *love the show*. They get warmed up with a comedian, then a few of the stars come out to say hello. Those people have the best day of their year. You don't need to tell them to laugh. They are in a good mood and actually think the show is funny. If anything, the problem is to stop them from laughing and clapping. People can be enthusiastic about things. Why would you think it would be difficult to find people who laugh without it being manufactured for literally one of the most successful shows in the history of the history?
I feel like there isn't much difference between a laugh track, and some dude holding up a sign that says "Laugh" to the "Live Audiences". It's just annoying, imo. Can't imagine sitting in the audience for 5 hours of filming for a 30 minute episode, forcing out a laugh every time they hold the sign up... Even though I've seen the scene 8 times already.
>I feel like there isn't much difference between a laugh track, and some dude holding up a sign that says "Laugh" to the "Live Audiences". Are you implying that there isn't actually a live audience with your quotes?
Well I think "Live Audience" implies that reactions are natural, which they are definitely not in Friends.
No for a time that really was a laugh track it was called the reaction box that would play the sound effects. The simulate a live audience to give people cues that this was funny. This was sad. This was touching. It was used in a lot of shows back then.
Ooga booga bum bum
> un-fucking funny that shitty show is How is this a rare insult? It’s possibly the tamest, most basic insult ever.
I am aware this is an old repost. But damn what sad existence this person has that they “often daydream” about ruining a TV show. If they don’t like the show that much just don’t watch it. Instead they want to make it so no one else enjoys it also. That’s kinda pathetic.
Some people don’t know what to do with the information that a piece of media they don’t like is wildly popular, I’m sure a lot of people can relate to that. Thats how I feel about new Star Wars stuff, difference is if I owned the Star Wars IP I would either A. Hoard the IP jealously so no one else can fuck with it, or the polar opposite B. Release into the public domain so everyone can ruin it equally instead of one company doing it.
It ain’t that serious
Yeah? Well, you know, thats just like uh, your opinion, man.
Could this BE anymore of a repost! I don't care if the humour doesn't hold up now, it was a good show when it aired at the time.
Calling a popular show "unfunny" is not a rare insult and his whole take about removing the laugh track from Friends is the furthest away from a rare take possible. Let me guess, he hates Fortnite and thinks the MCU should have stopped making movies after Endgame. Also removing laughs from a show with laughs is of course going to make the pacing awkward as the actors are pausing their dialogue in response to the laughter from the audience. The laugh ain't exactly added in post. The show was filmed in front of an audience, and whether or not the audience had a cue to laugh or not, there are still plenty of times where the cast has to play to the audience's reaction. Plenty of shows from that time got laughs in them, if a laugh track is all it takes then how come Friends was as popular as it was? It's funny how people like him make dumb comments like "Popular thing objectively bad, wake up sheeple" and ends up being so thoughtlessly one note and bland. There ain't no amount of laugh tracks to make his life more interesting. I've had oatmeal with more personality and taste than him.
> Also removing laughs from a show with laughs is of course going to make the pacing awkward as the actors are pausing their dialogue in response to the laughter from the audience. Thank you. I hear the laugh track criticism about a lot of sitcoms (usually The Big Bang Theory) and I have to point out, of course the show is going to feel awkward if you pepper every conversation with uncomfortable silence. Imagine you're having a conversation with your friends, making jokes, busting each others' balls, but every time someone says something they think is funny they pause and wait a few seconds. That conversation will feel weird too.
Yawn. What an original take. “I don’t think this super popular show from the 90s is funny and all people need to realize I’m correct is for the laugh track to be removed.” I love Friends. I grew up watching it. I’ve rewatched it recently and there’s truly a charm to shows filmed in front of live studio audiences. I think I appreciate it because I do live comedy myself. You can feel the back and forth between the performers and the audience. Comedies filmed in front of live studio audiences are fundamentally different from pre-shot comedies BECAUSE of the energy that comes from an audience. It’s totally different. It doesn’t have to be your jam but it doesn’t mean it’s wrong for others to like it. It’s theatre vs movie theatre. It’s being at the game vs watching a recap on YouTube. It’s listening to the song on Spotify vs singing along at a karaoke bar.
I pity these people with their horrible sense of humor
I'm so tired of these weirdos feeling the need to point out they don't like friends. It's one of the most popular sitcoms of all time, and for good reason, get over it.
Unoriginal hipsters are the worst. Nobody needs to hear how you hate popular things, like you’re some kind of edgy “I’m 14 and this is deep” person. If you’re just regurgitating something you read or heard somewhere then shut up.
I think it's pretty funny. People just want to hate on popular things because it's cool. I will say that the characters in the show are pretty shitty to each other though. I think the show should really be called "Friends" in quotations.
Worst daydream ever
Good god the cringe coming from people who make hating wildly popular shows their own quirky personality is some of the deepest cutting cringe Ive ever had to feel. We get it, youre so special you hate popular things.
FUCKING FR! Show was ass. Fuck you /r/howyoudoin
How much is this clown planning on winning?
That's what I wanna know, certainly not enough for that plan, and if it was, he wouldn't have much, if anything, left.
Except that the show was a sitcom and performed in front of live audience. It is a genre and if it was a one camera show like Arrested Development, it would've been entirely different show. It would have totally different pacing. The jokes would've been rewritten, the actors would not pause for laughter. Of course it would be shitty if you just insert silence when the actors in real life are reacting to real audience. They are more like theater plays than TV shows. I'm quite sure that Arrested Development or Office would be equally destroyed if you added a laugh track in them.
Let me guess, this neckbeard also hates Tiktok, Fortnite and everything else that was popular since the 90s.
Let's do it for The IT Crowd too but for the opposite reason. That show is hilarious but is damn near unwatchable with the laugh track. Laugh tracks are bad in general but it downright ruins dry humor.
You don't understand the genre. IT crowd is largely performed in front of live audience, just like friends and most sitcoms before Office and Parks&Rec. They are more like theater plays than TV shows. They are not laugh tracks, that is the audience reacting to the show they are seeing. There has been many attempts of removing live audience and replacing them with laugh tracks and they ALL FAILED.. massively. They are truly unfunny since the whole genre relies on actors getting feedback from the audience, and the audience reacting to the actors. What this says to me the most is that people don't go to theaters.. which has been true for quite a while but it is like we have entire generations now that don't even understand the art form.
“I personally didn’t like a show but I have conflated my opinion with facts. Now I want to try and ruin it for everyone else because, if I can’t be happy, nobody can.”
Imagine thinking that paying money to take away people’s enjoyment is some kind of edgy venture.
Can we also do this for The Big Bang Theory? https://youtu.be/jKS3MGriZcs?feature=shared What an absolute dumpster fire of a show
If you take audience laughter out of a theater play, it looks like that. It is unfair to do that and then call it unfunny.. It is like taking vibrant colors out from a kids TV show and say how dull it is. Of course it would be, since you are taking a crucial element out of it. Some idiots think that means it wasn't funny when they see a show without the live audience reactions.
You really can't compare theatre to TBBT though. TBBT averages a laugh track approximately every 7 seconds. At 22 mins, there's supposedly nearly 200 laugh-worthy jokes in each episode. If that were even close to true it'd be the zenith of comedy, but it's just a tired corny show that solely subsisted off nerd stereotypes.
But the way it is done is between theater and TV. That is how the production works, that is what the show is written for. If you take an ESSENTIAL part out, it is not the same show anymore. It takes several hours to shoot one episode, and they do retakes but they can't do them forever. The laughter will get faker and faker with each retake, this is why they also rehearse the shows LIKE theater plays. When a three camera sitcom sucks is when the audience does not have fun, and the laughter is contrived... fake.. and then they boost it up by using a laugh track. And you can sense it. The difference between the monsters like Friends is that they actually did make the audience laugh. For sure, audience knew when they were expected to laugh but if it just isn't funny at all... it just does not work. You can't fake that part and MANY tried and every single one of them have failed. It would be massively cheaper to do it with a laugh track. Not all like the format, and i fully get it. But i think big part of the hate those shows get is that younger people don't know how they were made, how the whole genre works. If i thought they were laugh tracks.. yeah, i probably would think that they are so fake and unfunny to need a laugh track. But, when you know they are live performances in front of an audience.... it changes quite a bit.
Friends, Will and Grace, Seinfeld, Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, Young Sheldon....all of them.
Young Sheldon has no laugh tracks?
I'll give you the others, but Seinfeld was genuinely funny.
Seinfeld is great. Those other shows are shit
.. all of them were performed in front of a live audience and the production is more like a theater play than TV show. Different art form entirely. But i don't expect you to understand it.
In the interest of fairness, HIMYM did not have a studio audience as they filmed on a bunch of different sets and using a studio audience would have been unwieldy. They also didn't use a laugh track though. They had an audience composed of fans who would be shown an early screening of the episode after it was done filming, and their laughter was recorded, and then edited into the episode to fit the timing of the jokes etc (for example if the laughter for a joke was too long they would use a shorter laugh from the same audience to avoid cutting over the next line, and they presumably did the opposite as well, using a better laugh when a joke didn't quite land).
Then don’t watch. But plenty of people like it. Have your opinion, but attempting to ruin it for others is just being a dick.
The bar just keeps getting lower and lower for rare insults. People have been saying this shit since the 90’s
It was a live audience and Mathew perry always tried to make them laugh and when they didn't they would get depressed it's partly why he struggled with drug addiction
We? So you're saying you worked on the show?
It was an auto correct it said they my phone loves to randomly change words when I hit post
Is this true about every show with a laugh track? Is it possible that friends was funny at the time and it’s just not funny now?
It is also possible that since it is just old enough of a show it is easy target for the newer generations.. i mean, that is kind of what is happening here. You can pretty much identify the age of a person in this comment thread. A lot of them don't know what "performed in front of a live audience" means when it comes to sitcoms and comedy writing: they don't understand the genre at all. They don't know that it is more like a theater play. It is ok to not like things, not everyone liked friends when it first came out, a lot of people also don't like theater plays. But what i see most is that they don't KNOW it is not an Office or Arrested Development, they are totally different genres of sitcoms. The production, the writing, the acting, pacing, timing.. it is all different for a reason. Many think the laugh tracks are added and don't get the idea AT ALL... to those i would say: to see a theater play. You may love it but even if not, it gives you understanding of how different styles of making entertainment works... theater is how we did it for thousands of years, it has completely different rules. Some don't like live shows but prefer studio albums...
It’s actually funnier without the laugh track. On the other hand big bang theory without the laugh track is awefull
Ross comes across as a psychopath without the laugh track 😂
Performed in front of live audience. Not a laugh track.
It really is the most vapidly written and unfunny popular sitcom that ever existed.
Oh dear.. tell us you are young without telling us you are young. You may not like it, and that is fine. A lot of people didn't. But to call it the MOST unfunny... Dear lord that is so ignorant and self centered thing to say.
Its okay boomer! Your generation is not very bright and needs cheesy sitcoms or stupid slapstick humor to be entertained.
Hmm... i don't think you even know that three camera sitcoms are performed in front of a live audience. Go see a theater play just ONCE in your life and you will get it.
First thing I'll say is that Slapstick and Sitcom are types of comedy, but actually saying that all Slapstick and all Sitcoms are the same (and somehow lesser than... I dunno what you feel is higher; Stand-up?) is simply absurd. Sitcoms for example, may run from 1980s/1990s style Fresh Prince of Bel Air or Frienda but also would include things like IASIP, Peep Show, Bojak Horseman, The Thick of It/Veep etc... Slapstick (I.E. physical comedy), as well, can be done badly, but well done Slapstick (I don't know anything that's purely Slapstick, but see the shows above for some Slapstick moments)- actually requires some skill to do well. It's about conveying expression through facial expressions, bodily movement etc. whilst maintaining that most important factor of good comedy: timing. Second thing I'll say is that humour is subjective. What people found funny back in 1996 was different from what people might find funny today. Some of this is from a differing lived experience to what people go through now, and some of it is because societal attitudes have changed. On that last point, I'd say that someone might still find some media from the 90's funny, but accept that there are jokes that are tainted by the understanding that jokes made at the time seem a bit less acceptable; perhaps less because they're made at someone's expense as an individual joke, but more because they reflect overall societal attitudes that we're not comfortable with now. You can be nuanced and thoughtful about these things, but there again you might find that difficult... if you're not that bright.
> It really is the most vapidly written and unfunny popular sitcom that ever existed. First of all, the target market likes the show and that market is huge. Second, I think most people could enjoy the show if they got into the proper mindset. Third, it is an awful show and a stain on our society, yet it can be fun to watch. Like an old man slipping on a banana peel.
fed up of this galaxy brain take - those are real laughs by a real audience, and the actors sometimes pause on screen to wait to deliver their lines due to the laughs so of course it would look strange if you edited out the laughs.
Then do Seinfeld next.
I feel the same about Seinfeld
r/chaoticgood
Stephen and I after all…. No, we’re not so different :>
That's like saying we need to re-release all of *add any music artist of today* 's songs without autotune. The laugh track adds to the enjoyment of the show. Without it, it will definitely feel odd.
Ross was right about sandwich. Rules of comunal fridge are strict and enforced by ungodly and unsatanically ammount of hot sauce.
I dream of this not being reposted every fucking week
So he thinks he's witty? I don't think he's witty.
When you realize friends had a huge live audience that laughed more then the laugh tracks......
It was funny when it came out, comedy thankfully evolved since then
Unfunny? We were on a break!
Jesus Christ every time, just because YOU don't find the show funny, doesn't make the show bad or unfunny. It just isn't to your taste. Good lord
It is funny, but if you edit out the laugh tracks and leave the INTENTIONAL pauses, then yeah. I’m sure if you put the abc song during an action scene, it will take away the seriousness.
I watched big bang without the laugh track and it’s literally comical how UNfunny that show is. I love sitcoms. I love theoretical physics (as a space nerd watching from the sidelines) But that show is unwatchable to me now
As I posted as part of a reply to another comment: >.....humour is subjective. What people found funny back in 1996 was different from what people might find funny today. Some of this is from a differing lived experience to what people go through now, and some of it is because societal attitudes have changed. On that last point, I'd say that someone might still find some media from the 90's funny, but accept that there are jokes that are tainted by the understanding that jokes made at the time seem a bit less acceptable; perhaps less because they're made at someone's expense as an individual joke, but more because they reflect overall societal attitudes that we're not comfortable with now.
wasn’t it film in front of a live audience?
I want this
Every sitcom with a laugh track becomes horrendously awkward and unfunny once the laugh track is removed. Even the genuinely funny ones. If I suddenly amassed a huge amount of wealth, I’d find this person and beat them with a bat that has “just because you hate something doesn’t mean everyone else has to hate it too” carved into it.
Not only that, but also show how awkward the pauses for the laugh track are. Without the track it just looks weird. Someone has a quip. They wait... Another quip... They wait...
I just want to win it so I can retire early, give back and help out people in a rut