Why are so many people turned off by the fact that this show has a laugh track?? So many other beloved and successful series have used laugh tracks in the past. That 70's Show, Friends, How I Met Your Mother, Seinfeld, Two and a Half Men, ect. It's really not a big deal. I for one, will still be watching. Really looking forward to seeing Kutcher and Masterson together again!
shareIt's the new hipster thing to do, think you're better than anyone else who watches a show with a laugh track...
shareI always thought laugh tracks were really annoying, until i watched season 7 of red dwarf (not sure if was just netflix) but there is no laugh track and it showed me that they really arent that bad, sometimes they can be over used but really who cares
shareBecause canned laughter just isn't dead people, but it is insulting.
Modern audiences and successful shows don't have to patronize people to get a laugh and rely on mindless, cheap, cliche devices to work.
Always Sunny is a great example (Louis, Curb, etc) of not having to use a laugh track to force a reaction. Never mind that this show is just plain dull and unoriginal.
Except that this show was filmed in front of a live audience. It's not a laugh track.
shareLaugh tracks have been scorned for decades. This one is especially odious considering the quality of the "jokes". But I suppose casting an eye at "hipsters" is what makes rednecks feel special. It's not as if they have anything else going for them.
shareLaugh tracks as a whole are distracting and annoying, especially because thy are telling me when something is supposed to be funny. They are an insult to my intelligence. If that makes me a 65 year old hipster I guess I'll take the label.
The laugh track on this show is way overdone and particularly annoying to the point of being un-watchable. Too bad, up until now I really liked Sam Elliot and Debra Winger. I couldn't stand to make it through even one episode.
Only hipsters blame hipsters!
shareThe people that go to see shows like actually laugh at anything
shareIt's just a weird and outdated gimmick.
And if a show is funny, the audience will know without instruction.
When you're watching a Drama and something sad happens, you don't hear an audience crying.
Exactly.
shareAgree totally. I could only watch for about 90 seconds. They put laughs where nothing is funny. Completely off-putting.
shareA show from not long ago (I think) came out with a laugh track. I slaughtered it on these boards. Whatever that show was, was terribly done. It made the show unwatchable. Especially when they rely on the laugh track like the unfunny big bang does. Just insert laugh tracks because it's not funny enough.
However when I first heard the laugh on The Ranch, I was immediately like uh-oh...
But by the end of it I'd enjoyed it so much or was laughing with it that I didn't notice it. It's well used. Maybe it's just seeing Masterson and Kutcher back on screen (together) again? Maybe it's just that well written, much like That 70s Show was that the laugh track becomes irrelevant as you laugh over the top of it anyway.
Maybe the show was specifically made for Keanu Reeves and they didn't want him to be sad so they insert other laughers into the show so Keanu would become Happy Keanu?
hahahahahaahah
Either way, I'm looking forward to many more.
You were actually laughing out loud at this? Wow, comedians would love to have entire audiences made up of people like you. I only watched the first episode, hopefully the laugh track drowning gut busters come later.
shareNah, comedians hate me in their audience. I laugh so much that they start laughing at me laughing at them. I infect them with their own comedy induced cackles. People around me become delirious with glee and end up forgetting where they are, before disrobing and trying to start an audience orgy. This really pisses the comedian off as now the funniest thing in the room is me with no pants.
hahahahahaha
People should unplug when they know they're about to watch a comedy. Just take it for what it is and enjoy yourself. Let yourself laugh at stuff because laughter feels so much better than being punched in the balls.
I bet everybody does laugh at you when you take off your pants, especially the women. And a comedy has to be funny to provoke laughter.
shareDoes repeating what I so blatantly implied make you feel as though you gained IQ points?
User replies to this post with "No" and then goes to checks MENSA.
derp
Hmmm, it seems the first sentence went right over your pointy little head, and you implied that people should laugh at anything, while I think there should be something to laugh about. Just because it claims to be a comedy doesn't count.
Does making up scenarios to fit your agenda make you feel clever? Probably. You have something in common with Oscar Wilde, but wit ain't it.
You were actually laughing out loud at this?
A show from not long ago (I think) came out with a laugh track. I slaughtered it on these boards.
Indeed good chap. By "right things", I presume you agree that thou holiness (me) knows what is truly right and truly wrong. Thus teaching the noobs (l3g17 5p3ll1ng) through offerings of my magical slaughterings. Though even if you meant I was telling others what they were liking was what you'd consider right and I'd consider wrong, you can still be rest assured that I beat them down with a club of language.
;-)
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I hate laugh tracks but I still enjoyed the first 7. There's a difference between laugh track on funny lines and just using them everytime someone says something though.
shareLaugh tracks are typically used for shows that aren't really that funny, but you think they are because of the canned laughter. It's like a crutch for something mediocre. There are some great shows out there that really do not need them (New Adventures of Old Christine) and some that really helped because the reactions were hilarious (Golden Girls). Yet then you rewatch a lot of the '90s sitcoms that had them... and it's painful to watch and listen to. As much as I loved Married... with Children, the audience laughter was annoying especially during the latter seasons. And I won't even comment on the TGIF garbage (excluding the gem Boy Meets World) that used laugh tracks like it was going out of style (alas it did not).
shareHow I feel about laugh tracks: AAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGWWWWWWHHAAAAAAAAA... ugh.
Honestly, it's out of date. It used to be the norm since shows were filmed in front of audiences.
No, filming in front of a live audience was not the norm. Back in the 50s and 60s there was just the crew, for the most part. Even the few shows recorded in front of an audience used canned laughter to "sweeten" the actual reactions. It wasn't until the early to mid 70s that shows started to move from the single camera format to three camera and the live audience. And they, too, sweeten the response. The actors and directors hate it, for the most part, while producers love it.
share"I Love Lucy" was shot with the three camera format. It's been around for quite some time. Just sayin'.
shareI watched the entire catalogue of Cheers about 5 or 6 years ago, and it did not bother me with the audience laughter. They apparently allowed the audience reactions to stand on their own in the final cut, and didn't accentuate it like most shows to make the jokes seem funnier. Sometimes there would only be 1 or 2 people laughing at a joke. It was unique.
On The Ranch, I just didn't find these jokes very funny, despite the laugh track.
The only problem with everyone who calls out this show for the sake of the "laugh track", or the "canned laughter" is, the show was recorded in front of a live audience. They did not use laugh tracks. It seems to me, that those who are so off base when it comes to such a simple fact, might not know what they are talking about when it comes to other points that are raised. Also, how can anyone have an opinion about the overall sentiment of the show, when they admit they have only watched a couple episodes? That would be like reviewing a book after a few pages. This show is meant to make fun of Hollywood, and the way they make sitcoms, it makes fun of the pop culture, and focuses on that part of America that has for far too long, been left out of the mainstream. I personally like the show, I see what they are doing. It is not meant to be taken as a show trying to beat all other shows. It simply is what it is. A family that has been through rough times, tough times, and as most real families, times that make or break them. They are trying to keep up with the changing world, while at odds with heritage, keeping true to their roots, and not allowing the way things have become take away from what has always been. It is a story about redemption, and love, hope and pain. It is a pretty realistic view of what a lot of families I know are contending with in the small country environment. The reality of losing a farm (or ranch) that has been in the family for generations. Losing it because the brave new world calls out to the youth, calls out to the pocketbook, it calls out and asks people to give up on the things that use to mean the world to the older generations. It asks, "How do we keep up with the Jones's, while not changing who we have always been?". It throws humor, and wit, that you would expect from people you might actually encounter, not the kind of polished wit everyone has come to expect from people sitting in a room competing for the best ratings. It is not meant for everyone, just as other shows are not meant for the group this show is designed for. That is why we have diversity in the world, we are not all the same. If we were, it would be a boring, lackluster existence.
shareIt has nothing to do with being "hipster" laugh tracks are just annoying. Do you really need a cue to tell you when to laugh?
shareIf the producer thinks that the audience is too stupid to understand that the show is a comedy, then yes, you need a laugh track to tell you what the producers thought was funny.
The majority of the shows you listed only partially employ a laugh track (with many using taped reactions to whatever is on screen, not just mindless laughter), with HIMYM being the sole exception as laugh-track only (but even that show recorded genuine laughter created from what transpired on screen).
I have no problem with a laugh track if its use is necessary because a shooting location will not permit an audience, but otherwise, it's insulting. And in any case, a laugh track should only ever contain a recorded reaction to what is happening on screen. Otherwise the laughter comes across as disingenuous, and even if they get a laugh out of me, I end up feeling as false as the phony laughter.
http://www.tv.com/shows/that-70s-show/forums/does-anybody-know-if-that-70s-show-was-filmed-in-front-of-an-audience-351-841541/
https://www.quora.com/Are-sitcoms-like-Friends-and-HIMYM-really-recorded-in-front-of-an-audience-Are-the-laughs-original
http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/entertainment_tv/2007/01/how_i_met_your_.html
https://www.quora.com/Did-Seinfeld-use-a-laugh-track-a-live-audience-or-a-combination
http://www.mydreamcametrue.com/TwoandaHalfMen.html