The history of ‘the laugh track’ says much about what the makers of television thought of their audiences, writes Jennifer Keishin Armstrong. Charley Douglass didn’t like the laughter he was hearing.

What do you call a sleeping dinosaur? A dino‐SNORE. That is not a funny joke. But you might have found it funnier if you heard laughter after listening to it. ‘Laugh tracks’ are commonly used in ...

Well, Frasier Redux is pretty much what we expected. It’s not great. It’s not terrible. One of the unquestioned failures, according to a few tabloid reports, is that blasted “laugh track”. Out on the ...

Some Strictly fans felt like they were watching some old-fashioned sitcom with 'canned laughter' on the launch show on Saturday (September 16). Sound levels made the laughter seemed artificial as ...

What in the wow is "canned laughter" and how in the world does it work? Join Mindy and Guy Raz as they explore the funny business of our brains on canned laughs! It's the Who, What, When, Where, Why, ...

Don’t scoff at laugh tracks: they work. According to a report published Monday in the journal Current Biology, having recorded laughter play while corny “dad jokes” are told makes people find them ...

A quick scan of the channels might give the impression these are somber days for the laugh track. Those blasts of guffaws from our TVs seem less widespread than they once did.For one thing, there are ...

Watford boss Nigel Pearson has admitted that he 'can't stand' fake crowd noise, which he has compared to "American comedy shows with canned laughter". The Premier League returned behind closed doors ...