Laugh Tracks

The ideas presented within Chuck Klosterman's "'Ha ha,' he said. 'Ha ha." are not at all what I was expecting.  While I agree with his suggestion that laughter is often used to fill "empty space", it is hardly appropriate to assume that the desire for stimulation (however impersonal or small) is a social flaw. Furthermore, the suggestion that laugh tracks are used only to teach a viewing audience how to react is not entirely accurate.  Laugh tracks set the mood for the type of surface-level, slap-stick, situational comedy that viewers still find highly entertaining. Take, for instance, the episode of Friends entitled "The One With All The Thanksgivings". Within this episode both Joey and Monicas heads (at different times) are stuck in the open end of a turkey. Assume, first, that the writers have done a competent job of setting up the situation so that the joke is not outside the realm of believability. On both of these occasions, as expected, a laugh-track or enhanced audience reaction is present. Imagine now this same situation in the dead silence one experiences while watching The Office or 30 Rock (both shows of equal merit).  No matter how well-prepared the situation may have been, the presence of a man with a tukey on his head would be instantly perceived as awkward or unrealistic due to the lack of comedic preparedness on the part of the audience. This type of conditioning, as suggested by the author, is a direct result of the laugh track, though hardly has the adverse effect suggested in the article. Quite the opposite, the laugh track allows the audience to achieve what they have desired all along--the opportunity to laugh.
Also worth mentioning is the effect that a laughing audience has on an actor's comedic timing.  While the audience's reaction may be altered during editing for whatever purpose, their presence at all allows the actors to extend a punchline, cut an action short, or in many cases ad-lib at the approval of the audience, creating a more enjoyable final product.