Laugh Tracks

Sorry for another sitcom-theory post so soon after the last one, but a reader asked me if I had a specific post where I outlined why I think the mockumentary format is the modern version of the laugh track – or at least, as we saw on How I Met Your Mother last week, that it’s okay for a laugh-track show to turn off the track when they do a mock-documentary segment. I think I did write a longer post explaining this, but I can’t find it, so here is sort of a quick summary of my thoughts on the mockumentary and why it seems to work.

Single-camera shows, shot without an audience, are all the rage

Since I was talking the other day about laughs that sound fake even when they’re real, I should link to Earl Pomerantz’s post about the history and purpose of the laugh track. He talks a lot about when a show uses canned laughter (it’s not just to “save” jokes that don’t work) and the editing issues involved with the laughter mix; he also addresses the fact that even a real live audience doesn’t sound real when you’re watching at home: