Studio audiences and laugh tracks in sitcoms

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Invisible Crane

Adventurer
Okay before I go on to the main question in this thread I want to explain why I'm asking this.

Recently I was able to watch some episodes of MASH without the laugh track, now I've known of this show for a long time but never gave a chance because of the laugh track which I felt was so intrusive it disrupts my enjoyment of it (though the O.R scenes and the more dramatic moments did not use it) and I've gotta be honest watching them without it was such an experience. I've started to grow an apprciation for MASH due to it's mix of comedy and drama (even if it does get a bit schitzophrenic with it but considering it was one of the first shows to do such a thing I can understand).

But I've gotta be honest if there were not any versions of the episodes without the laugh track (like how the shows creator wanted it to air to begin with) I would have never watched it at all because I just simply hate laugh tracks and studios audiences in sitcoms at all. Game shows, talk shows, stand up comedians, etc I can understand but in sitcoms to me it comes off more like a deterence than adding to the immersion of the series because it serves more of a distraction to me, especailly when there is cheering or the audience gets really rowdy (like in Married...With Childrent or 1970s sitcoms like Happy Days).

Am I the only person who feels this way about them?
 
I think it depends on the type of show. Sometimes, yes they can be obtrusive, but other times if it's absent, there are times where you're thinking "was that supposed to be funny or what?".

I'm not saying we need laugh tracks to tell us what's funny, but to my ears it can often sound more awkward if a "joke" isn't followed by a laugh.
 
I absolutely hate laugh tracks. If anything, the moments I find funny are obviously the ones the creators don't, because that's when there are no laughing tracks played in those scenes.

If anything, it just shouts to me that the writers and that know they aren't funny, and are trying to use the "laughter is infectious" thing.

If a scene is meant to be funny, have characters laugh...
 
It's bearable in the I.T. Crowd I find, but the sonic boom from the audience laughing at when Sheldon tells everyone he's playing Halo in Big Bang Theory gets me every time.
 
Studio audience laughter is acceptable in a UK sitcom where the audience laugh appropriately at the funnier jokes. US studio audience laughter however is overwhelmingly awful. Nothing is ever as funny as US studio audiences find it, and their laughter makes me feel like I'm watching the show with a bunch of irritating, easily amused morons. God forbid a person slightly more famous than the rest of the cast should walk into shot and have to wait three minutes for the cheering to die down before saying their first line.
 
I agree US comedy is awful when it comes to audience laughs, though the audience for Two And A Half Men seems bearable, some shows I laugh at if there's no laugh track or whatever fine, like Scrubs.
 
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