science

Laugh track

Laugh track is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Laugh track rather than just read about it. In short: A laugh track (or laughter track) is an audio recording consisting of laughter (and other audience reactions) usually used as a separate soundtrack for comedy productions. The laugh track may contain live audience reactions or artificial laughter (canned laughter or fake laughter) made to be inserted into the show, or a combination of the two.

Key takeaways

Laugh track belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Laugh track to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Laugh track from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

A laugh track (or laughter track) is an audio recording consisting of laughter (and other audience reactions) usually used as a separate soundtrack for comedy productions. The laugh track may contain live audience reactions or artificial laughter (canned laughter or fake laughter) made to be inserted into the show, or a combination of the two. The use of canned laughter to "sweeten" the laugh track was pioneered by American sound engineer Charles Douglass.

The Douglass laugh track became a standard in mainstream television in the U.S., dominating most prime-time sitcoms and sketch comedies from the late 1950s to the late 1970s. Use of the Douglass laughter decreased by the 1980s upon the development of stereophonic laughter. In addition, single-camera sitcoms eliminated audiences altogether. Canned laughter is used to encourage the viewer to laugh.

History in the United States

Radio Before radio and television, audiences experienced live comedy performances in the presence of other audience members. Radio and early television producers used recordings of live shows and later studio-only shows attempted to recreate this atmosphere by introducing the sound of laughter or other crowd reactions into the soundtrack. Jack Dadswell, former owner of WWJB in Florida, created the first "laughing record". In 1946, U.S. Army Signal Corps Major Jack Mullin brought back two Magnetophon recorders and 50 reels of magnetic tape from a German radio station at the end of World War II. The high-fidelity recorders had been built by German companies BASF and AEG and could record 20 minutes per reel of high-quality audio. Alexander M. Poniatoff had his Ampex company manufacture a version of the Magnetophon for use in radio production. Popular vocalist Bing Crosby later adopted the technology to pre-record his weekly radio show. The new recording method allowed sounds to be added during post-production. Jack Mullin explained how the laugh track was invented on Crosby's show:

The hillbilly comic Bob Burns was on the show one time, and threw a few of his then-extremely racy and off-color folksy farm stories into the show. We recorded it live, and they all got enormous laughs, which just went on and on, but we couldn't use the jokes. Today those stories would seem tame by comparison, but things were different in radio then, so scriptwriter Bill Morrow asked us to save the laughs. A couple of weeks later he had a show that wasn't very funny, and he insisted that we put in the salvaged laughs. Thus the laugh-track was born.

Early live U.S. television, film; "sweetening" In early television, many shows used the single-camera filmmaking technique, filming each scene several times from different camera angles. Live audiences could not be relied upon to laugh at the "correct" moments, or might laugh too loudly or too long. CBS sound engineer Charley Douglass noticed these inconsistencies, and took sweetening audience reactions. If a joke did not get the desired chuckle, Douglass inserted additional recorded laughter; if the live audience chuckled too long, Douglass gradually muted the guffaws. The process could also be used to "desweeten" audience reactions by toning down unwanted loud laughter to conform with the producer's conception. Douglass built a prototype laugh machine using a reel of tape containing recordings of mild laughs glued to the edge of a 28 inch wooden wheel. The machine was operated by a key that played until it hit another detent on the wheel, playing a complete laugh. CBS demanded possession of the machine when Douglass left the company and the prototype machine fell apart within months of use. Douglass expanded his technique in 1953 by extracting laughter and applause from recorded pantomime segments of The Red Skelton Show and other sources. The recorded sounds were placed into a huge tape machine. The first American television show to incorporate a laugh track was the sitcom The Hank McCune Show in 1950. Other single-camera filmed shows soon followed suit though several, like The Trouble with Father (ABC, 1950–1955), The Beulah Show (ABC, 1950–1952) and The Goldbergs (1949–1956), did not feature an audience or laugh-track. The anthology series Four Star Playhouse did not utilize a laugh-track or audience on its occasional comedic episodes, with co-producer David Niven calling the laugh track "wild indiscriminate mirth" and stating, "We shall carry on without mechanical tricks".

Multi-camera shows Soon after the introduction of the laugh track, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz began filming their sitcom I Love Lucy with a live studio audience using a setup of multiple film cameras. The show had no laugh track and used audience reactions. Some Multi-camera shows with live audiences would use recorded laughs to supplement responses. For variety shows, the migration to videotape from live broadcast allowed editing before the show aired, but editing a taped audience would caused bumps and gaps on the soundtrack. Charley Douglass was called on to bridge the gaps. Both performers and producers began to realize the power behind prerecorded laughter. While witnessing an early post-production editing session, comedian Milton Berle once pointed out a particular joke and said, "as long as we're here doing this, that joke didn't get the response we wanted". After Douglass inserted a hearty laugh following the failed joke, Berle reportedly commented, "See? I told you it was funny". The comedian Bob Hope, while working on one of his television specials, took Douglass's hands in his own and began rubbing them to create the effect of limbering up Douglass's fingers, saying "OK, now, give me some good laughs."

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Laugh track

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Laugh track claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Laugh track before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Laugh track ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Laugh track

In research: Laugh track appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Laugh track in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Laugh track is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Audiovisual introductions in 1950, Hogan's Heroes, Laughter, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Laugh track outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Laugh track in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Laugh track means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Laugh track out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Laugh track in simple terms?

Why does Laugh track matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Laugh track?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Laugh track.