Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Canned Laughter

I watched only five minutes of "How I Met Your Mother" before switching off for good. Sorry NPH, but nothing can overcome the laugh track that is employed every time a character says or does something that has even a .0001% chance of being funny.

The recorded laughs are terrible. The simulated audience starts laughing all at once and cuts off the chuckles instantly. Notice too ► there are no dynamics. All the laughs indicate an equal reaction to each producer-selected joke. A squirt-milk-out-of-your-nose-because-you-are-laughing-so-hard piece of comedy gets the same reaction as a knock-knock joke.

Let me decide what is funny. Don't even bring a conditioned- response, B.F. Skinner pidgeony, brainwashed dolt-filled "live" audience that has someone coaching them.

This mini-rant was instigated by Green Acres showing on the blood draw center's waiting room TV. That show was not funny. Today it plays as sexist, xenophobic, and incites class warfare. To think even recorded audiences were guffawing at it, disgusts me.

Coming up: More on the zombie vs. vampire mind-bender. Stay tuned.

1 comment:

TMC said...

I never noticed the laugh track! Isn't that odd?

my word verification word is wince.