Response to Klosterman

Video Clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08OZ32s1xOM

         After reading Chuck Klosterman’s article I started thinking about all the shows I watched and if they had laugh tracks in the background.  A few of my favorite shows have the laugh track on behind, for example, That 70’s Show.  Before reading the article, I never gave the laughs in the background of the show much thought but now when I watched my nightly episodes of the That 70’s show, I could not help but experience for myself what was actually funny and what was not. 

I agree with Klosterman when he said, “the key to this kind of programming is never what people are saying.  They key is (a) which people are doing the talking, and (b) the laugh track.”  For example, if you watch the video clip I attached, you will notice that the laugh tracks are much more enthusiastic when a certain character makes comments.  In this clip, the audience “exaggerates laugh” when Red and Eric are making sarcastic comments to each other, then when Kitty is talking.  However, now that the laugh tracks have been revealed to me as a viewer, it is irritating to watch the show because after almost every comment there is a laugh. 

Another interesting topic Klosterman brings up is the fact that people have three types of laughs; a real laugh, a fake real laugh, and a “filler laugh.”  These are unfortunately a real thing in our society but I feel that I could not imagine a society that does not revolve around these laughs.