Stop Laughing for Me
You watched the final episodes of Arrested Development, laughed heartily and tried your very best to keep up with the rapid-fire dialogue, razor-sharp quips and arcane allusions busting on everything from the Bush administration's foreign policy debacle to the show's own tragic
cancellation. Once finished, you fire up the TiVo and watch some old Scrubs and Reno 911 episodes and the laughs continue!
Well, your laughs that is.
The pumped-in, canned distractions that still plague the majority of half-hour, fat-dumb-husband-humping comedies are, thank god, nowhere to be found on these smartly funny shows. You only really notice the offensive cackling when you accidentally flip on some CBS shitfest and the
audience goes bonkers after Ducky tells Wild Thing about his lack of sex life. once again.
It's mind boggling that this genre existed for this long using the "we don't trust our audience to know what's funny" device. Picture going to see a comedian who pushes a button that dispensed uproarious laughter after he delivers a joke? Actually, that's a pretty
good gag. Prop comics, take heed.
Canned laughter is a bewildering, dated crutch and I'm having a hard time picturing anyone enjoying it or needing it. I realize Leno and his staff of Harvard hacks need the giant, glaring APPLAUSE sign lit up when he delivers a tepid tee-hee to the studio audience. He needs the encouragement
and I guess it makes for good late night TV. But we really don't need it when watching a scripted, taped, 22-minute program. Just let us decide when to titter, or not. Thankfully, this sentiment has caught on.
Speaking of Leno, what's with the matching, faded denim shirt-pant combo he always wears when not gussied up and sleepwalking through The Tonight Show? I challenge you to find a casual photo of Leno where he is not wearing that dumb, jeans-based outfit. I get it Jay, you like
cars and bikes and denim makes you look manlier, a fat denim sausage man, but manly just the same.
After a while of viewing sitcoms that don't use the grating laugh tracks, you begin to notice and enjoy the little things you were too distracted to notice before. Fake-laugh shows rely on the telegraphed delivery of anemic punch lines and double entendres used when Dezi dressed
down Lucy back in the day.
On shows like Curb Your Enthusiasm and The Office, the silent reaction shots get just as many big laughs as the expertly delivered lines. Watching Jim's bemused facial expressions after another bizarrely confident statement from Dwight or racially misguided remark from
Michael is exponentially funnier than any faux-cranky "boy is my wife an annoying old bitch" line from Raymond's dad.
It boils down to lack of trust and faith in the viewer. The producers and directors for this network garbage won't allow the viewer to be uncomfortable for one second or allow any pause in the action or dialogue. I guess they're afraid your itchy trigger finger will flip away to
ESPN for some scores because four seconds went by without audible content. Besides the positive comedic effect, these pauses are necessary. It gives me time to jam my fist in the pretzel bag and not miss a line because of the deafening crinkling of plastic.
To keep in line with this warped wisdom of adding third-party emotions, why don't they just adds screams of disgust and horror when the CSI team pulls a lopped-off penis out of a cadaver's mouth or deafening sobs of joy when Noah Wylie cures a case of blindness on ER.
Yes, he's still on that stupid show. In fact, catch next week's episode; I hear it's a "very special" one.
Listen friends, I know I'm being "Captain Obvious" and "preaching to the choir" and "not full of shit for once," (for quoted phrases above, please use quote fingers when reading). And I won't be receiving any hate mail from angry Yes, Dear fans who rely on the ersatz whoops
and hollers as a cue, but I am stupefied that it continues.
It's like the networks are saying comedies for smart people don't need laugh tracks, but for the rubes who watch the dumbed-down comedies, here's some help. They are nice enough to offer some clear-cut guidance when you're trying to figure out if that umpteenth jerking-off joke on
How I Met Your Mother was funny or not. (For the record, it wasn't.)
If any industry insider can give me an honest reason why this nonsense is still used and when it began, let me know, I'm too busy laughing along with Reba to do the research.
And since you're feeling industrious, fire up iMovie and edit out the canned laughs from a Seinfeld or Cheers episode. I bet it will be a much better experience.
Jeff is your new best friend. Like most best friends, he's not a good listener, but he will give you unsolicited advice and opinions freely and often. It's usually suspect and poorly presented, so proceed with caution. Unlike most best friends,
he will never IM you. He's not that bothersome.
Pick of the Week: Jay Mohr Videos on Fox Sports! I know, sports-based humor is as lame as that ass John Mayer attempting to play the blues, but Jay Mohr is beyond funny with his very honest and hysterical take on sports and all the egos that populate it.
