The laugh track is a safety net for all of the poor, simple people, a reminder that this is all fiction, and that we shouldn't become too involved with it, because, remember, it's not really. It's also a way of belittling the characters. For the most part laugh tracks seem to laugh at the characters, rather than with them, if that makes any sense.
You can definitely divide the viewing audience up by their reaction to a laugh track. There are some people who like it, some who just don't care, and those who hate it. The people that like the laugh track also seem to be the kind of people who like reality shows- the mental and emotional investment they have to put into their entertainment, the better.
M*A*S*H is actually a great example of this- I've occasionally caught an episode on television, and having seen it without, the laugh track is just incredibly jarring- the fact that it's often on at really inappropriate times just highlights how dark their situation really is.
That would be a great Buffy episode. The laughter would start out relatively un-threatening- laughing at Xander's snark and such, but would end up being really creepy, laughing at all of the wrong times and such.
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Date: 2005-10-20 10:25 pm (UTC)You can definitely divide the viewing audience up by their reaction to a laugh track. There are some people who like it, some who just don't care, and those who hate it. The people that like the laugh track also seem to be the kind of people who like reality shows- the mental and emotional investment they have to put into their entertainment, the better.
M*A*S*H is actually a great example of this- I've occasionally caught an episode on television, and having seen it without, the laugh track is just incredibly jarring- the fact that it's often on at really inappropriate times just highlights how dark their situation really is.
That would be a great Buffy episode. The laughter would start out relatively un-threatening- laughing at Xander's snark and such, but would end up being really creepy, laughing at all of the wrong times and such.