Laugh Tracks Are... Good?

i didn't watch a lot of shows growing up we didn't have a cable all right i was a pbs kid okay where kid can be a kid wait that's uh that's chucky cheese but when i did watch shows most of them had laugh tracks fresh prince of bel-air i carly mr bean but i saw this video by drew gooden which i thought was really interesting about the death of laugh tracks and sitcoms where he basically took six shows and compared how many jokes a show with the laugh track can have versus a show without one and came to the conclusion that shows without laugh trash can be more comedically efficient because they don't have to spend time on the laughs themselves now i'm a big fan of drew or danny or curtis or whatever his name is and i've seen this sentiment before i asked you all on my instagram story and it was overwhelmingly anti-laugh track and it had me thinking are shows worse because they have a laugh track the funniest show of all time has a laugh track drake and josh can't since here they're only available in south america are we really saying that shows like drake and josh that's so raven zack and cody shows we know are classic shows would have been better without a laugh track i needed to laugh track when i was younger okay i would have honestly just thought they were bullying each other this is not about your dairy i like shows with laugh tracks all right does that make me a dumb little baby maybe to be fair you need a really high iq to understand the show like the office i actually wasn't even gonna make this video until i i asked somebody what their favorite show was and they said i don't like any of those laugh track shows we get it dude you're not like other girls i was also going to take the drama route with this video you know drew gooden more like drew baden but drew gave me permission to make this so i want to look at the laugh track some shows with it some shows without it and see if they can make sense in their own respective worlds or if it's a good thing that they're all dead one thing i'm not gonna do is math this is gonna be fun i know i have an impossible task here uh not only does nobody agree with me but uh if you call attention to a laugh track it automatically becomes more annoying it's like saying you can see your nose now you're just gonna you can just keep seeing your nose on your face now that's ten times more annoying i do this to myself since when are you a writer what writer we're talking about a sitcom [Music] i can understand why people don't like laugh tracks if they play over something that's not funny it makes you like angry like how dare you try to make me think that was funny there's some shows where it just doesn't fit at all like why is there a life track over scooby doo the animated scooby-doo show like scoob what's going on there's no audience like scoob i do hate when life tracks use the exact same clip over and over and you notice this one guy laughing the same exact way right once you're like that that's the same clip that's definitely the same guy doing the same thing but i'd argue that when it works it really works really making it feel like you're part of an audience laughing at something great like adding a laugh track is low-key and art in and of itself the same way that editing and pacing is figuring out where to place them the same way you place music or sound effects how much of a laugh to use and when to not use one at all other shows have their own way of having a laugh track like jim in the office just straight up looking right at the camera and letting you know hey something weird just happened or in a reality show when something wild happens and they cut to someone who's like that was wild or musical cues all basically letting you know that a joke is happening right now i don't think there's anything inherently wrong about them but the problem is bad shows overuse them on parts that are not that funny what i don't like is this idea that shows with laugh tracks are like less funny than shows without one and like what is this revisionist history imported thighs says if you need a laugh track your comedy is bad and unfunny so golden girls isn't a good show you're saying you're saying golden girls isn't a good show disrespecting betty white right now you're saying golden girls isn't good last tracks are one of those things that the internet unanimously agrees is bad but nobody in real life really agrees like every time there's a new fast and furious movie and everyone's like oh my gosh another one who asked for this and then they make a billion dollars every time in the same way shows with laugh tracks have been consistently more popular than shows without them before tv people experienced comedy by actually getting out and going to a comedy thing they experienced it with other people and the producers of shows wanted to recreate that same feeling of feeling like you're in an audience even if you're watching something on a box at home because people just got this thing they just got the tv they're like why would i laugh by myself it was their first time you're more likely to laugh out loud if you're not the only freaking idiot in the house laughing it kind of tricks your brain and your brain usually doesn't really care about it unless you're deliberately thinking about it i thought you liked to laugh i thought you were happy go lucky no no no i'm not happy i'm not lucky and i don't go that's not funny drew was right life tracks have died out in the last decade or so and i actually think they should there's something about seeing a laugh track with a hd visual screen it just doesn't hit the same as seeing it with like a blurry vhs four by three whatever ratio that older shows have i've seen people say things like imagine if the office had a laugh track it'd make it so much worse and it's like yeah dub that's why it doesn't have one it wouldn't fit with that show it's supposed to be a documentary style like it's supposed to feel like you're the only one getting a chance to observe these people why would it why would there be 50 other people laughing with you at them i feel like it doesn't make sense the other way around too when people take the laugh tracks out of a show that does have one well i think it's hilarious to remove a laugh track from a show like friends and notice that ross is a psychopath you attacked your ex-wife oh no no no no i tried i think the most you can do when you take out a life track of the show that has one is just say oh it's kind of funny that uh i didn't notice that that they have to stand and wait for the next line like that would be awkward in the world of the show what you doing here aren't we rehearsing forever carly but you can't be like yeah this is way more awkward and that's why it's bad now watching shows without a laugh track is taking away the comedian's timing the most important thing to the comedian besides the delivery there's three pillars actually the joke the timing and the delivery you're taking away one of the pillars now you just got the joke and you got the delivery and the house is falling down a house divided by itself dividing if you divide a house by two it cannot stand by itself it's like comparing a broadway play to a movie like if you calculate the times that an actor has to wait for people to stop laughing or if you calculate the times that people clap and then compare it to a movie that doesn't have any of those things and say that the movie is more efficient than the play i mean yeah you can do that but they're in their own worlds like that's what sitcoms are they're like theater we only see one side of the house on friends as opposed to all four walls of the office in the office and it makes you feel like you're part of that theater experience like you don't take the laughs out of a stand-up comedian set and be like why is this guy just standing around move on to the next line buddy well it's not always like this a lot of these shows are filmed in front of a live audience these actors are playing off audience reactions the same way they would in a play or like stand-up comedy the type of comedy isn't really the same either like i don't think this joke from the it crop would work as well if there wasn't an audience there it's almost as if she doesn't know anything about computers what do you do oh don't worry that's why i always make two cups of tea anyway what were we talking about her not knowing anything about computers what not all jokes are the same with their timing and delivery you know some are more fast paced christ that right there is the mail now let's talk about the mail can we talk about the mail please mac i'm dying to talk about the mail for you all day okay well multi-cam sitcoms tend to be a little bit more over the top yeah have a nice ride oh great rock oh that's good cause it was your laugh it's not worse it's just a different type of delivery i feel like there's certain parts that wouldn't be as iconic if the audience wasn't going crazy and if it was just dead silence like these parts on seinfeld where kramer is just wild and i feel like wouldn't be as funny if it was a dead silence versus a show like new girl or parks and rec where it's usually more relaxed in the way that they deliver their lines leslie i typed your symptoms into the thing up here and it says you could have network connectivity problems sometimes the absence of a laugh track on a show that has one can make the moment hit 10 times harder like the fresh prince of bel air just from the first episode you can tell how good the show is going to be it's just light hearted and fun and loose it's just a good time but then the end it hits you no laugh track look at me when i'm talking to you i encountered bigotry you could not imagine now you have a nice poster of malcolm x on your wall i heard the brother speak i read every word he wrote putting will in his place and after it was so lighthearted the whole time it just you're just like oh dang this is this is some real stuff right now i feel like the dead silence feels way more silent here than if the entire show was already silent now i'm not really trying to defend the big bang theory again but i'm but somehow i'm sure that 80 of people who hate that show have never actually watched the show they've seen like all the out of context clips and awkward videos where they take out the laugh track i know this because i'm one of those people okay you're looking at one of them how does everyone hate this show and it still has the 8.1 user rating on imdb with 700 000 reviews that's higher than new girl everybody hates chris dog with a blog that's higher than golden girls are y'all disrespecting what you want right now i said this in one of my last videos but i feel like the most important part of the sitcom is actually knowing the characters if you show people a random clip from one of your favorite shows i bet it won't be as funny as you think it is when you're actually in the show and that moment comes up it's the same for getting invested emotionally i actually saw the episode of the office where steve carell left the show first that was my first episode i ever saw when it aired and i wasn't that sad because i hadn't seen the show i was just like this looks like a good nice guy that doesn't create any issues no wonder they're gonna miss it i feel very blessed same with the dinner party episode i thought it was just okay but like understanding the dynamics of the characters the personalities and why they act the way they do then going back and watching it the second time after going through the whole show i was like this is amazing same with seinfeld like there's funny parts in that show if you just take one clip but the best part of that show is the freaking orchestration of how it starts at the beginning and there's little seeds that are planted and everything comes together by the end in a perfect harmony of hilarity and the vibe of a lot of these shows is like you're going to their house and hanging out with all your friends there's a comforting rhythm to having a laugh track there sometimes that just sucks you win even if it's tricking your brain for a little bit i like how people just say it's insulting my intelligence how dare they tell me when to laugh they're trying to manipulate me everything is trying to manipulate you when sad music makes you sad manipulated when you thought a joke was going to end one way and it ended another way manipulate it when a character dies and it makes you cry manipulated i know we've shifted culturally into more of like a quick-witted fast-paced or more intellectual type of comedy but not all comedy has to be super intellectual like i can enjoy the lobster the last thing i want right now is a kiss from a silly little girl and i can also enjoy nacho libres fantastic the office and friends are two examples of shows that i wrote off because of how annoying people were online about them then i've realized you don't have to hate something just because a lot of other people like it like it's okay and i'm sorry both those shows are great like if they were actually bad they wouldn't be the top viewed shows of 2020 15 years after they finished their run there's obviously something special about them so yeah i just wanted to talk about sitcoms you know offer a different perspective from the one i've seen a lot and uh use this as an excuse to watch a lot of shows and talk about i know even a lot of creators of shows don't like laugh tracks but i'm just here to say you know what if you do it right it can be done well classic shows with laugh tracks are some of the most comforting shows in existence and isn't that what we all need right now also new good enough merch is dropping right now through black friday and through the weekend if they're still available we got four beautiful colors even drew got one look at him he loves it aggressive chef kiss worthy just a reminder to not beat yourself up over thinking that you or what you're doing is not enough i really love these hoodies and these were like the first time where i felt successful about them before i even put them out and show them to anyone if you want to support the channel and you want to feel cozy in these winter times while doing it there's a link down there in the description i appreciate you so what's your favorite sitcom of all time does it have a laugh track or not what do you think about laugh tracks in general let me know in the comments down below is it a good thing they're kind of dying out do you miss them should we add them to shows that shouldn't even have them at all don't shoot me

Channel: Nathan Zed

Views: 343,619

Keywords: nathan zed, drew gooden, laugh tracks, the office, sitcoms, friends, parks and rec, parks and recreation, big bang theory, office clips, michael scott, tv shows, seinfeld, how i met your mother, without laugh track, fresh prince, fresh prince of bel air, fresh prince reunion, hamilton, the IT crowd, always sunny, its always sunny in Philadelphia, office funniest moments, friends funniest moments, new girl, curb your enthusiasm, Seinfeld clips

Id: wdPxLE_lkXI

Length: 12min 31sec (751 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 26 2020