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In the 75 years since it was introduced, the laugh track has conditioned viewers to know when and how much to laugh

Some audiences love it, and some audiences hate it, but the laugh track—which —has a deeper, more psychological impact than many realize.

For months after I completed my book on I purposely avoided shows with . After hundreds of hours of over-the-top laughter that followed every Fred Flintstone fall or , I became hyperaware of the laughter that accompanied my favorite shows like “I Love Lucy" and “Seinfeld.” These shows returned to my TV rotation after this short detox, but similar to involuntary processes like breathing, once I begin noticing laugh tracks, I couldn’t stop, breaking the desensitization and conditioning that has occurred for many viewers after decades of watching sitcoms.

Like a number of early television shows, laugh tracks originated on radio before transitioning to television. Pioneering radio engineer Jack Mullin brought a tape recorder back from Germany after World World II, exhibiting the technology by recording musical performances and then playing back the music. In June 1947, he met the producer for , and after he demonstrated the technology, Crosby decided to pre-record his show.

Jared Bahir Browsh is the��Critical Sports Studies��program director in the ���Ҵ�ý�ƽ��������Department of Ethnic Studies.

At the time, the few shows that were prerecorded were done so on , which was fine for scripted content, but the low quality of the recording prevented the discs from being used to broadcast music. Crosby preferred a pre-recording in a studio, but NBC denied his request. He left NBC in 1945, then joined ABC in 1946 after the young network allowed him to record his show, the first major radio show to be recorded. The first season was recorded on disc, but when Crosby heard the quality of magnetic tape, .

The improved quality of the recording helped push the show to the top 20 during its second season. The technique allowed show producers to edit out less-entertaining segments or performances deemed inappropriate for radio. During the third and final season of the show, comedian Bob Burns performed , which led to raucous laughter but was too racy for broadcast. Producers kept the laughter, and when the studio audience was less than receptive to a comedy performance a few weeks later, ��during post-production, and the laugh track was born.

Sweetening live laughter

In early television, shows that were not recorded live used a single camera, filming the same scene several times. CBS engineer Charles (Charley) Douglass noticed inconsistencies in the laughter, with some reactions shorter or longer than intended, especially after the third or fourth filming. Also, certain individual laughter could be distracting, overshadowing the performance when audience members laughed at the wrong time. Douglass began by adding recorded laughs when the joke did not land, and even edited down laughter when it went on too long.

The first time recorded laughter was used not merely as a sweetener but as the sole source of laughter for a sitcom was in 1950 during “The Hank McCune Show” produced for CBS by Bing Crosby Enterprises. Although the sitcom lasted only 13 episodes, . The recorded laughter not only helped to signal jokes in the program but was also used to cover bumps in the original recording.

Many early sitcoms and variety shows filmed in front of a studio audience, but the design of multiple-set studios blocked half the audience from seeing some scenes and performances, so the laugh track helped fill some of those gaps. “I Love Lucy" was a famous exception, using mostly audience laughter and reactions in the original broadcast; however, even some of .

,” a large, organ-like box that contained different laughs, many of which were originally recorded from segments of “The Red Skelton Show.” Douglass, who founded Northridge Electronics, was so secretive about his device that his family were the only ones to see inside it and just a few select technicians trained to use it. and edit in the laughter isolated from other producers and editors.

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“I Love Lucy" used mostly audience laughter and reactions in the original broadcast; however, even some of the show's laugh audio was sweetened with a laugh track. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Psychology and social conditioning

The laugh track has survived 75 years on television, but not without challenges or controversy. The television comedy community has at best been ambivalent toward canned laughter, with some early television performers understanding how a laugh track could be used to project their desired reaction to a joke or routine. Many producers hated the artificial laughter, but because all the most popular comedies had laughter and most used a laugh track, they submitted to the trend at the time.

By the 1960s, most comedies had stopped filming in front of a studio audience, knowing the broadcast audience did not care whether the laughter was canned or real. They also knew the , so a laugh track was a requisite to any show categorized as a comedy. One of the most famous tests of this idea involved “”: Audiences were shown early episodes with and without the laugh track, and the response was much better for the episodes with a laugh track. Shows like “Hogan’s Heroes” and “M*A*S*H” have had laugh tracks removed in rebroadcasts, leading to much darker shows around war themes.

The goal is for the canned reactions to match the assumed reactions of the audience, conditioning the audience to react or engage in the way intended. Media theorist although the audience does have the agency to decode, or create their own meaning, even when producers encode the content with their intended messages. The laugh track is another form of encoding in which the message—in this case the joke—is encoded with humor, and the laugh track is used to reinforce the message so the receiver, or audience, decodes the dialogue or action and finds it humorous.

Some creators pushed back against this, including Mel Brooks when creating “Get Smart,” Jackie Cooper in his show “Hennessy” and The Monkees, who thought the band’s comedy was intelligent enough to not require the track in their self-titled show. Brooks eventually relented, whereas Cooper and The Monkees finally were able to eliminate the laugh track in the third and second seasons, respectively. Both “Hennessy” and “after they eliminated the laugh track, whereas “Get Smart” lasted six seasons.

Laugh tracks were also widespread in children’s television. When Hanna-Barbera created several shows, including “, they included a laugh track similar to that in sitcoms, which they brought with them when they transitioned to Saturday morning. Hanna-Barbera’s Saturday morning cartoon budget was more limited than their primetime budget, so they and other animation studios created their own, more limited laugh track to circumvent Douglass’ monopoly, but would occasionally still employ Douglass laugh tracks for more high-profile productions. Other producers such as Rankin/Bass and Jim Henson also developed their own laugh tracks. The canned laughter not only showed animated viewers when to laugh, but it also extended scenes to reduce the amount of animation and, in turn, cost.

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The Monkees thought their comedy was intelligent enough to not require the track in their self-titled show. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

However, some children’s television producers, like their live-action counterparts, hated laugh tracks and tried to broadcast without them. Ross Bagdasarian pushed back against a .” Despite the popularity of The Chipmunks’ novelty music, the show was cancelled after one season, which was blamed partially on its lack of a laugh track.

Creators who won their battle against canned laughter were Charles Schultz, Jay Ward and Bill Scott. ” would fail without a laugh track, but 60 years later, the holiday favorite and Schultz’s other specials remain classics—without the laugh track. Ward and Scott were supported by the show’s sponsor General Mills when negotiating with ABC regarding the laugh track in ",” and it was ultimately eliminated after the fourth episode.

Canned laughter’s introduction to children’s television contributed to the continued social conditioning of television audiences; laugh tracks both signal that the program is a comedy while helping audiences recognize jokes and know when they should laugh. The laugh track also creates a feeling of connection or community rooted in visual media transitioning from theaters, where audiences watched the show together, into homes where an individual or

Return of live audiences

A mix of old-school sensibilities, a crop of new producers and a shift in settings for sitcoms led to the return of live audiences in the late 1960s. , Lucille Ball insisted on a live audience for her third network sitcom. That era also saw a shift back to shows set in urban environments after networks earlier moved toward rural settings like those in “The . This not only led to the rural purge in the early 1970s, as series returned to cities, but these urban sitcoms, created in larger, more accommodating studios, were more conducive to live audiences.

Writer and producer Norman Lear’s legendary career was built in front of a live studio audience, as his urban sitcoms like “” not only featured working-class Queens or the housing projects of Chicago but were also groundbreaking in bringing more diverse representation to television. Similar to theater, actors in these sitcoms allowed the audience reactions to simmer, ultimately pausing the scene until the laughter subsided. However, even as live studio audiences returned, showrunners continued to sweeten the laughs with laugh tracks.

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Actors in sitcoms like "Good Times" allowed audience reactions to simmer, ultimately pausing the scene until the laughter subsided. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Comedy dramas (or dramedies) like “Eight is Enough” and “The Love Boat” even employed laugh tracks to help signal jokes, as they mixed comedy and more serious story lines and used the laugh track to help the audience distinguish between them.

Some games shows, like Chuck Barris' were also sweetened with laugh tracks, especially since audiences were less excitable due to the lack of prizes given or won. Mark Goodson’s productions, like "The Price is Right” and “Family Feud,” were and continue to be famous for more raucous live audiences, but there still have been instances of occasional sweetening for broadcast.

As time went on, laugh track options were expanded, with the type of laughter increasingly customizable depending on the show. Both Douglass and the companies creating their own tracks, like Hanna-Barbera, ensured the laugh track for each show matched the tone, mood and pace of the show in which they were used. More subtle comedies featured more subdued laugh tracks, while more slapstick or over-the-top comedies used more raucous laugh tracks to match the program and encourage similar viewer reactions.

The laugh track continued to be nearly ubiquitous in sitcoms through the 1980s. However, as more satirical and animated sitcoms made it to broadcast, producers of this new crop of series began to move away from the laugh track to maintain flow and introduce more subtle humor. When “The Simpsons” debuted in 1989—the first primetime animated sitcom on a broadcast network since “The Flintstones” in 1966—the series departed from its prehistoric counterpart and The shift also allowed for more visual humor and for producers to stack more jokes and allow dialogue to flow without waiting for the canned laughter to subside.

Yet, even through the 1990s, the most popular sitcoms, including “Friends” and “Seinfeld,” maintained the classic sitcom approach and both invited live audiences to tapings and sweetened laughter with more advanced laugh tracks that were increasingly digital and customizable. As television entered a new millennium, more single-camera comedy series, including mockumentary series like and cult favorites like “Arrested Development,” ditched the laugh track. Also, cable dramedies like “Shameless” and “Atlanta” emerged, particularly on cable, balancing serious storylines with subtle comedy where laugh tracks just did not fit with the overall audience experience.

New generations of television (and streaming) viewers are now conditioned to watch comedies without laugh tracks, but there still is a place for traditional multicamera comedies that are either filmed in front of an audience whose laughter is sweetened or whose editors just insert laugh tracks. Audiences may be familiar with formulas or tropes in sitcoms, but laugh tracks still provide a feeling of viewing and broadcast television slowly fades.

Jared Bahir Browsh��is an assistant teaching professor of��critical sports studies��in the ���Ҵ�ý�ƽ��������Department of Ethnic Studies.

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