Audience laughter

The thread I started "US sitcoms that can just fook off" has got me thinking about being 'filmed before a live studio audience'. I saw one of the Friends documentary a few years ago where it said that at times the audience laughter is edited at times. What do you guys think of this? I understand that shows are to a strict time limit but I find this worrying. Is there really anything stopping them from adding a piece af laughter to a joke? I could not imagine watching OFaH without the audience laughter. I've always thought that good comedy is down to timing and the actor cannot time a joke correctly unless there is an audience reaction. This is a problem when the later series of Red Dwarf was a 'live audience free zone'. They had to leave a gap for the reaction when the show was later shown to people.

I think a sitcom is funnier with a live studio audience! Should an audience make any difference to the writing?
I'm interested to know what you guys think.

Audience laughter annoys me and I wish it would go away. I attended tapings of several sitcoms in California and we were told that the the only reason we were there was so that our laughter could be recorded. They gave prizes to the "best" laughers. It's not easy to laugh at the same joke 6 times in a row.

I tend to vastly prefer audience sitcoms. That's probably more to do with the style of sitcom which is recorded in front of an audience than the laughter, which I tune out. The only time I can recall ever being aware of laughter was on the recent abysmal sketch pilot School Of Comedy. Which in fact was the antithesis of.

However, I don't like your thread topic, so shall edit it. You're talking about laughter in general, and have made the point that some laughter is edited on occasion. 'Canned' laughter is totally faked, not just tweaked or re-timed or whathaveyou.

Quote: Aaron @ September 13 2008, 1:51 PM BST

I tend to vastly prefer audience sitcoms. That's probably more to do with the style of sitcom which is recorded in front of an audience than the laughter, which I tune out. The only time I can recall ever being aware of laughter was on the recent abysmal sketch pilot School Of Comedy. Which in fact was the antithesis of.

However, I don't like your thread topic, so shall edit it. You're talking about laughter in general, and have made the point that some laughter is edited on occasion. 'Canned' laughter is totally faked, not just tweaked or re-timed or whathaveyou.

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I am in the right place though, general discussion? I wasn't sure?

Do we know of any sitcoms that definately used 'canned'?

Yeah, as we're talking generally rather than specifically about BRITISH sitcoms (or indeed British comedies), yeah, this is the correct forum for it.

I can't think of anything that's totally canned off the top of my head, no. *strokes chin*

A friend of mine had a sketch recorded live in front of an audience. He later watched the playback with the director, who remarked, "Your 'Blah' sketch went down well, didn't it? There's no need to enhance the laughter!"

A good example of how audience laughter destroys a show is Operation Good Guys. Series 1 is without audience and is a joy to watch. The remaining 2 series had really loud braying obtrusive laughter that had been edited in as it wasn't a studio sitcom but single camera on-location.

True, they may have taped an audience watching a tape of the shows rather than added canned laughter (a la the Alan Alda character in Crimes and Misdemeanours) but either way it comes across as phoney and a touch desperate.

I'm not a big fan of laughing with a majority - or a minority I laugh when I think it's funny.

I used to love Audience Sitcoms. They were my favorite. BUT removing the audience seems to have given more creative outlets for writers.

Also my main problem with Audience sitcoms is that it's all canned. I noticed this while watching Canadian Audience Sitcoms. The producers of the shows have in no way the same capabilities or experience creating that great audience sound that Britcoms and Americoms can do. The general result of these unedited Canadian Audience Sitcoms were very low murmured laughter.
And so my belief (which is even more solidified after reading Da Butt's post) now is that all Audience Sitcoms are one way or another...fake. The illusion has been broken for me in other words.

I'd just like to point out that much of that "fakery" is little different to tweaking the mic levels of the actors in post, or adding in CGI.

Quote: DaButt @ September 13 2008, 1:26 PM BST

Audience laughter annoys me and I wish it would go away.

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Yea, me too. I wish it would FUCK OFF!

I don't see the need for it any more. Audience Sitcoms are remaining remnants of television's first programs to be brought over from vaudeville shows to radio and TV. I don't think we need ques to laugh any longer.
Steve Martin said something along the lines of: The old style of comedian gave the audience ques when to laugh and often times would humor themselves my not doing anything funny at all, but still giving the audience a cue and watching them barrel over laughing. It's a different thing to take an audience outside their comfort zone, remove all ques and than be actually funny.
It's like working without a net. The net is the laugh que and for you sitting at home watching that cued audience laughter becomes the shows safety net.

Quote: Curt @ September 13 2008, 5:28 PM BST

Audience Sitcoms are remaining remnants of television's first programs to be brought over from vaudeville shows to radio and TV.

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Back in the good old days.

Quote: Aaron @ September 13 2008, 5:34 PM BST

Back in the good old days.

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True true I didn't say that was a bad thing at the time.

I'd still take pretty much any of the modern line of that kind of comedy over most 'modern', closed set shows.

Quote: Aaron @ September 13 2008, 5:19 PM BST

I'd just like to point out that much of that "fakery" is little different to tweaking the mic levels of the actors in post, or adding in CGI.

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It's also highly likely (I wouild think) that if they have to shoot the same joke several timesw due to mishaps, the later audience laughs may be strained, so they might use the best laughter 'shot' with a later best video shot.