[Colbert]

(Original post by Manitude)

Stuff like Harry Hill though - it's clearly just a guy in a studio, I very much doubt there's a real audience involved.

[JoMo1]

The programs are scripted, directed and acted around a laughter track, of course it seems eerie. You might as well cut out all of one of the actors lines and complain about how then obviously that person made the program funny as without it the others just seem weird.

[ormaybeitsjustnarcissism]

iirc the first series of I'm Alan Partridge didn't have one and the second was in front of a live audience? I much prefer it without.

[arctic_toon]

Wasn't it Graucho Marx who said that laugh tracks are the death of comedy?

I was going over old episodes of The Office and Ricky Gervais was hysterical! Along with, comedies like 30 Rock, Arrested Development that have already been mentioned....shows how great comedies are w/o laugh tracks.
Network executives/writers/producers who put out these shows with laugh tracks are worried that either they comedy isn't funny enough or the viewer won't know when to laugh....which is absurd.
But if you look at Arrested Development vs Two and a Half men or some other show with laugh tracks.....one had amazing reviews but no ratings....and the other way around for the other....

oh well

[ozzyoscy]

Your examples are of Friends, which was never funny, and another American sitcom which, while it has its moments it seems, is still an American whiny voice sitcom.

Only Fools and Horses is funny without the laugh track/live audience (whatever they used). The Office obviously.

But I think the laugh track is to create a jovial atmosphere. A moment on Buzzcocks is funnier if Phil Jupitus starts laughing maniacally at it.

Old Red Dwarf is funny but it's not quite right if you take out the canned laughter. It creates too much loneliness which takes away from the comedy. Red Dwarf is a comedy so the audience shouldn't be reminded every second that, while they're funny people, they're still desperately alone, even depressed at times, and far from home.