Laughter is one of our most precious commodities in life, getting us through (and past) difficult situations and topics and providing a release of joy that every day life for the most part lacks. Nobody doesn’t like to laugh. (Except the current leader of the free world who can only manage to plaster that strange fake horizontal mirthless look on his face when he knows he’s supposed to be enjoying something but can’t figure out how to naturally express amusement and delight. But I digress…) The sight of a baby laughing is glorious. To be in a theater full of people laughing at a comedy (or a straight drama gone awry) is one of the most fulfilling of all group activities. And then there are sitcoms with laugh tracks.

I haven’t watched a sit-com in years. Largely this was due to the laugh tracks imposed by the networks on all comedies. Whenever the fake laughter hit the soundtrack whatever might have amused me made me grimace. Laughtracks ruined most shows that people told me I would like–‘Seinfeld’ being the only example I can honestly think of. And don’t believe the rumor that the studio audiences were only slightly sweetened by fake laughter–that’s just the bunk. Laugh tracks are and were ubiquitous on network TV for a simple reason; the shows were largely unfunny and if you don’t believe me try watching the shows sans laughtracks–there are several posted on Youtube, You’ll see that its the fake laughter that tells you where the laughs are supposed to be–without the track there’s little to laugh at. The above laughter-free scene from a ‘Friends’ episode is a perfect case in point. Without the track, the scene appears to be a stage play in which the actors are forgetting their lines, looking at each other for long pauses waiting for the others to get them back on track. As one of the Youtube commenters puts it: “It feels like an interactive game where you need to press a button to keep the plotline going.” Now that the big con is out of the bag, I think I’ll watch a few hours of programs on TVLand with the sound turned off and see if I can even begin to fathom the plot. Yes, it’s a slow day…