WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.410
This is a clip from the hit TV series,

00:00:02.410 --> 00:00:03.763
"Parks and Recreation."

00:00:03.763 --> 00:00:07.393
...128 ounce option.

00:00:07.393 --> 00:00:09.905
Most people call 
it a gallon, but they

00:00:09.905 --> 00:00:12.595
call it the regular.
Now let's see what

00:00:12.595 --> 00:00:14.705
that same clip would
be like if we added

00:00:14.705 --> 00:00:15.675
a laugh track.

00:00:15.675 --> 00:00:19.675
[rewind sound]
...128 ounce option.

00:00:19.675 --> 00:00:22.395
[laughter]
Most people call it

00:00:22.395 --> 00:00:25.585
a gallon, [laughter]
but they call it the regular. [laughter]

00:00:25.585 --> 00:00:28.635
It seems so wrong,
but for most of

00:00:28.635 --> 00:00:32.495
television history, it was
so right. [background laughter]

00:00:32.495 --> 00:00:35.145
Over the last half century
or so almost every

00:00:35.145 --> 00:00:38.909
comedy on television had
canned laughter, [laughter]

00:00:38.909 --> 00:00:41.869
from "I Love Lucy"

00:00:41.869 --> 00:00:43.819
to "The Big Bang Theory."

00:00:43.819 --> 00:00:45.619
For some, the laughter
is viewed as an

00:00:45.619 --> 00:00:48.392
imposition. For
others, a secondary

00:00:48.392 --> 00:00:51.022
character you almost forgot was there,

00:00:51.022 --> 00:00:52.932
until it wasn't anymore.

00:00:52.932 --> 00:00:54.132
In recent years, the

00:00:54.132 --> 00:00:55.742
laugh track has been
used less and

00:00:55.742 --> 00:00:57.172
less as sitcoms in
general have

00:00:57.172 --> 00:01:00.061
decreased in popularity.
Let's break down

00:01:00.061 --> 00:01:01.971
where the mysterious
laugh box came from

00:01:01.971 --> 00:01:05.971
and where it went.

00:01:05.971 --> 00:01:07.401
Before television existed,

00:01:07.401 --> 00:01:09.134
there was the ballet, the opera,

00:01:09.134 --> 00:01:11.319
magic and comedy shows.

00:01:11.319 --> 00:01:12.419
When you went to one of

00:01:12.419 --> 00:01:13.479
these events, you were

00:01:13.479 --> 00:01:15.251
experiencing the
audience reactions in

00:01:15.251 --> 00:01:17.568
real time.
If something was shocking,

00:01:17.568 --> 00:01:19.797
you could hear and
feel the gasps echo

00:01:19.797 --> 00:01:22.997
around you and
similarly with laughter.

00:01:22.997 --> 00:01:25.137
But then came the radio,
the first ever

00:01:25.137 --> 00:01:27.500
broadcast medium.
Those communal

00:01:27.500 --> 00:01:29.302
reactions disappeared
as American

00:01:29.302 --> 00:01:31.012
families gathered in their
living rooms to be

00:01:31.012 --> 00:01:33.722
entertained.
Radio producers wanted

00:01:33.722 --> 00:01:35.592
to develop a way to
give people the live

00:01:35.592 --> 00:01:38.735
experience at home.
The first-ever laugh

00:01:38.735 --> 00:01:41.590
track began with
Bing Crosby's radio show.

00:01:41.590 --> 00:01:43.860
Recording pioneer Jack Mullen

00:01:43.860 --> 00:01:45.580
recalls the creation to "Channels of

00:01:45.580 --> 00:01:48.741
Communication," a trade journal in 1981.

00:01:48.741 --> 00:01:51.078
"The hillbilly comic Bob Burns was on the

00:01:51.078 --> 00:01:53.593
show one time and through a few of his

00:01:53.593 --> 00:01:55.958
then extremely racy and off-color folksy

00:01:55.958 --> 00:01:58.785
farm stories into the show. We recorded

00:01:58.785 --> 00:02:01.863
it live and they all got enormous laughs,
[laughter]

00:02:01.863 --> 00:02:04.363
but we couldn't use the jokes. So

00:02:04.363 --> 00:02:06.379
scriptwriter Bill Morrow
asked us to

00:02:06.379 --> 00:02:09.539
save the laughs.
A couple of weeks later, he

00:02:09.539 --> 00:02:11.764
had a show that wasn't
very funny and he

00:02:11.764 --> 00:02:14.289
insisted that we put
in the salvage laughs. [laughter]

00:02:14.289 --> 00:02:15.880
Thus the laugh
track was born.

00:02:15.880 --> 00:02:18.837
Fast forward to the
era of early television.

00:02:18.837 --> 00:02:20.747
Comedies were filmed
with a single camera

00:02:20.747 --> 00:02:22.991
in front of a live audience.
That meant

00:02:22.991 --> 00:02:25.183
that each scene would be
filmed multiple times, from

00:02:25.183 --> 00:02:28.278
multiple angles, instead 
of the multi cams today, which

00:02:28.278 --> 00:02:30.677
have multiple cameras
capturing one take.

00:02:30.677 --> 00:02:33.169
Those separate angles
and takes would be

00:02:33.169 --> 00:02:35.208
cut together and when
that happened, the

00:02:35.208 --> 00:02:37.342
laughter was inconsistent.

00:02:37.342 --> 00:02:39.151
Audiences would laugh at the

00:02:39.151 --> 00:02:40.901
wrong time, too loudly,

00:02:40.901 --> 00:02:44.049
for too long and were simply unreliable.

00:02:44.049 --> 00:02:47.899
In the late 1940s, CBS sound engineer

00:02:47.899 --> 00:02:49.560
Charlie Douglas noticed those

00:02:49.560 --> 00:02:52.670
inconsistencies and
couldn't take it anymore.

00:02:52.670 --> 00:02:54.634
If a joke didn't get
a desired laugh,

00:02:54.634 --> 00:02:56.114
he would insert
one with the use

00:02:56.114 --> 00:02:58.248
of a laugh track.
This technique became

00:02:58.248 --> 00:03:01.117
known as "sweetening."
Douglas went so far

00:03:01.117 --> 00:03:03.466
as to create a physical laugh box.

00:03:03.466 --> 00:03:05.851
According to Ron Simon, curator of

00:03:05.851 --> 00:03:07.769
television and radio at the Paley Center

00:03:07.769 --> 00:03:10.242
for Media, the device was about three

00:03:10.242 --> 00:03:12.540
feet tall, the shape of a filing cabinet,

00:03:12.540 --> 00:03:15.310
very heavy and had slots for 32 reels,

00:03:15.310 --> 00:03:18.480
which could hold ten laughs each. It was

00:03:18.480 --> 00:03:20.304
officially named the audience response

00:03:20.304 --> 00:03:22.534
duplicator, but it became known as the

00:03:22.534 --> 00:03:25.874
"laugh box." At its best,

00:03:25.874 --> 00:03:27.904
the "laugh box" could hold 320

00:03:27.904 --> 00:03:30.460
laughs. Press them one at a time

00:03:30.460 --> 00:03:32.796
and you get a similar laugh.
[single laughs] Press

00:03:32.796 --> 00:03:36.309
multiple keys at once [laughter] 
and a symphony of laughter would play.

00:03:36.309 --> 00:03:37.431
Each key represented a

00:03:37.431 --> 00:03:39.757
different age, sex,
and style of laugh,

00:03:39.757 --> 00:03:43.107
with a foot pedal
regulating the length. [laughter]

00:03:43.107 --> 00:03:45.423
The "laugh box" was mysterious though.

00:03:45.423 --> 00:03:47.323
Since Douglas owned the patent and

00:03:47.323 --> 00:03:49.406
created all of them, nobody outside of

00:03:49.406 --> 00:03:51.450
him and his family
members had ever seen the

00:03:51.450 --> 00:03:53.025
inside of the machine. And when

00:03:53.025 --> 00:03:55.096
Douglas wasn't around,
the machine was

00:03:55.096 --> 00:03:58.191
kept tightly padlocked.
In an interview

00:03:58.191 --> 00:04:01.646
with "TV Guide" in 1966,
Dick Hobson said

00:04:01.646 --> 00:04:03.999
if the laugh box should start acting

00:04:03.999 --> 00:04:05.296
strangely, the laugh boys

00:04:05.296 --> 00:04:06.655
wheel it into the
men's room,

00:04:06.655 --> 00:04:08.281
locking the door
behind them so no

00:04:08.281 --> 00:04:10.187
one can peek.
I mentioned the name

00:04:10.187 --> 00:04:12.386
Charlie Douglas and it's like Cosa

00:04:12.386 --> 00:04:14.836
Nostra, everybody starts whispering.

00:04:14.836 --> 00:04:19.236
It's the most taboo topic in TV.
The first sitcom to

NOTE Paragraph

00:04:19.236 --> 00:04:21.055
use the "laugh box"
was the short-lived

00:04:21.055 --> 00:04:24.845
series, "The Hank McCune Show"
in 1950. [laughter on show]

00:04:24.845 --> 00:04:26.290
The idea of recorded laughter

00:04:26.290 --> 00:04:28.938
spread throughout Hollywood
and by the 1960s

00:04:28.938 --> 00:04:30.887
almost every single camera sitcom

00:04:30.887 --> 00:04:34.037
was utilizing canned laughter. But it was

00:04:34.037 --> 00:04:35.601
only Douglas that engineered the

00:04:35.601 --> 00:04:37.415
laughing for everyone for almost a

00:04:37.415 --> 00:04:41.073
decade. For $100 Douglas would wheel the

00:04:41.073 --> 00:04:43.318
mysterious box to each studio on a dolly

00:04:43.318 --> 00:04:44.898
and sit with the producers in a

00:04:44.898 --> 00:04:47.103
screening room and
decide what kind of laughter

00:04:47.103 --> 00:04:49.383
and when. Eventually Douglas

00:04:49.383 --> 00:04:51.108
hired a second-in-command to keep up

00:04:51.108 --> 00:04:52.813
with the 100 hours of television he

00:04:52.813 --> 00:04:54.734
needed to sweeten.
And the rest was

00:04:54.734 --> 00:04:57.747
history. Multicam sitcoms were

00:04:57.747 --> 00:04:59.741
popularized in shows like "Friends,"

00:04:59.741 --> 00:05:01.071
"Frasier," "Seinfeld" and

00:05:01.071 --> 00:05:08.820
more incorporated canned laughter.
[Sound of "Friends" in the background]

00:05:08.820 --> 00:05:11.102
The actors and actresses would know to

00:05:11.102 --> 00:05:13.122
hold for laughter, knowing that each

00:05:13.122 --> 00:05:16.570
scene would be sweetened.
[more sound from "Friends"] The Discovery

00:05:16.570 --> 00:05:18.401
Channel documentary,
the one that goes

00:05:18.401 --> 00:05:21.112
behind the scenes,
shows how it works.

00:05:21.112 --> 00:05:23.802
[Sometimes the audience responds too big.]

00:05:23.802 --> 00:05:28.612
If I went with the actual
laugh, [laughter] that laugh

00:05:28.612 --> 00:05:30.465
is still going through her next line

00:05:30.465 --> 00:05:34.142
into his next reaction
and that's, it's

00:05:34.142 --> 00:05:37.002
five, six seconds.
And in TV land that's

00:05:37.002 --> 00:05:39.792
an eternity. [laughter]
[Sometimes we have to put in

00:05:39.792 --> 00:05:43.112
a laughter that is shorter.]
[laughter]

00:05:43.112 --> 00:05:44.971
It felt like comedies
would be like this

00:05:44.971 --> 00:05:47.329
forever. And then "The
Big Bang Theory"

00:05:47.329 --> 00:05:49.040
went off the air in 2019

00:05:49.040 --> 00:05:50.720
and took with it one of the last

00:05:50.720 --> 00:05:52.727
multicam sitcoms with canned laughter.

00:05:52.727 --> 00:05:54.717
When we look at the television landscape

00:05:54.717 --> 00:05:57.137
today almost, every single comedy is a

00:05:57.137 --> 00:06:00.217
single-camera comedy and not a multicam

00:06:00.217 --> 00:06:02.857
sitcom with canned laughter. You can

00:06:02.857 --> 00:06:04.837
count on two hands how many multicam

00:06:04.837 --> 00:06:06.927
sitcoms that use a
laugh track are on TV

00:06:06.927 --> 00:06:09.271
right now, and not to

00:06:09.271 --> 00:06:13.197
mention those that went
off the air this year [2020].

NOTE Paragraph

00:06:13.197 --> 00:06:15.491
The use of the laugh track
has almost disappeared

00:06:15.491 --> 00:06:17.591
completely from the TV lineup.

00:06:17.591 --> 00:06:19.901
So what changed?

00:06:19.901 --> 00:06:22.531
Dead air in television
used to be frowned upon

00:06:22.531 --> 00:06:24.256
and shows would push
for laugh tracks

00:06:24.256 --> 00:06:26.946
whenever possible.
[distant laugh track]

00:06:26.946 --> 00:06:28.776
Bill Cosby claimed
his first sitcom,

00:06:28.776 --> 00:06:31.786
"The Bill Cosby Show,"
that ran from 1961 to

00:06:31.786 --> 00:06:34.681
1971, failed because
he had insisted on

00:06:34.681 --> 00:06:37.811
not using a laugh track.
Not to be

00:06:37.811 --> 00:06:39.632
confused with the
very successful "The

00:06:39.632 --> 00:06:41.915
Cosby Show" that aired
in the 1980s and

00:06:41.915 --> 00:06:45.068
did have a laugh track.
And "MASH" fought

00:06:45.068 --> 00:06:47.148
to not have a laugh track
at all, but

00:06:47.148 --> 00:06:49.182
they came to a compromise
with the studio

00:06:49.182 --> 00:06:50.392
They would use the canned

00:06:50.392 --> 00:06:54.150
laughter, [laughter]
but just not during the very

00:06:54.150 --> 00:06:57.262
serious OR scenes.
While we associate

00:06:57.262 --> 00:06:59.212
the 80s and the 90s
with the laugh track,

00:06:59.212 --> 00:07:01.175
that was actually the
time when single

00:07:01.175 --> 00:07:03.018
camera comedies
without canned laughter

00:07:03.018 --> 00:07:06.258
started to take over.
A key player in this

00:07:06.258 --> 00:07:09.174
transition was HBO. Their shows

00:07:09.174 --> 00:07:11.954
"Dream On" in 1990
and "The Larry Sanders Show"

00:07:11.954 --> 00:07:14.661
in 1992 ran without laughs tracks

00:07:14.661 --> 00:07:17.024
and even garnered praise for doing so.

00:07:17.024 --> 00:07:19.209
The airing of these shows
proved that comedies

00:07:19.209 --> 00:07:21.649
could exist, and
exist successfully

00:07:21.649 --> 00:07:24.385
without laugh tracks.
Other studios

00:07:24.385 --> 00:07:25.375
took notice and

00:07:25.375 --> 00:07:27.395
began to follow suit.

00:07:27.395 --> 00:07:29.135
Then came "Curb Your Enthusiasm,"

00:07:29.135 --> 00:07:30.257
"Malcolm in the Middle,"

00:07:30.257 --> 00:07:31.068
"Scrubs,"

00:07:31.068 --> 00:07:32.233
"Arrested Development,"

00:07:32.233 --> 00:07:33.566
"It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia,"

00:07:33.566 --> 00:07:34.304
"30 Rock,"

00:07:34.304 --> 00:07:35.464
"The Office" and

00:07:35.464 --> 00:07:37.734
the list goes on and on.

00:07:37.734 --> 00:07:39.544
Writers and producers
were excited by

00:07:39.544 --> 00:07:41.634
the change, as it
allowed them to stray

00:07:41.634 --> 00:07:43.196
from the constant
stream of punchlines

00:07:43.196 --> 00:07:45.650
to explore character-based
humor. Another

00:07:45.650 --> 00:07:47.790
reason the laugh track fell
to the wayside?

00:07:47.790 --> 00:07:50.228
According to Mike Royce,
the co-showrunner of

00:07:50.228 --> 00:07:52.318
Netflix's "One Day at a Time,"

00:07:52.318 --> 00:07:54.078
"I think one of the
reasons why people

00:07:54.078 --> 00:07:55.830
don't like laugh tracks
is they don't like

00:07:55.830 --> 00:07:57.740
to be told how to react. It's

00:07:57.740 --> 00:08:00.216
an American thing:
Don't tell me what the

00:08:00.216 --> 00:08:02.212
[bleep] to laugh at."
"T"he Big Bang Theory was

00:08:02.212 --> 00:08:03.851
one of the last
big sitcoms that used

00:08:03.851 --> 00:08:05.957
canned laughter
and even their creator

00:08:05.957 --> 00:08:08.028
Chuck Lorre insisted
that absolutely no

00:08:08.028 --> 00:08:10.008
sweetening took place on any of his

00:08:10.008 --> 00:08:12.887
series, which also include
"Two and a Half Men"

00:08:12.887 --> 00:08:16.296
and "Mike and Molly,"
stating "I do not

00:08:16.296 --> 00:08:18.262
and have never,
sweetened my shows with

00:08:18.262 --> 00:08:20.412
fake laughs.
I've always thought it was

00:08:20.412 --> 00:08:23.374
pretty hateful and
a self-defeating practice."

00:08:23.374 --> 00:08:24.840
For now, the laugh track lives

00:08:24.840 --> 00:08:27.450
in a very strange state.
It's used in very

00:08:27.450 --> 00:08:28.891
few shows,
but lives on in the

00:08:28.891 --> 00:08:30.921
reruns of ever popular series like

00:08:30.921 --> 00:08:34.401
"Friends," "How I Met
Your Mother," and more.

00:08:34.401 --> 00:08:36.209
Perhaps history might
repeat itself and

00:08:36.209 --> 00:08:38.210
we'll see a resurgence
in multicam sitcoms

00:08:38.210 --> 00:08:40.110
and the laugh track.

00:08:40.110 --> 00:08:41.741
Until then, we can thank streaming

00:08:41.741 --> 00:08:43.457
services like Netflix and Hulu for

00:08:43.457 --> 00:08:47.457
keeping Charlie Douglass's
legacy in our living rooms.

00:08:47.999 --> 00:08:49.109
Thank you for watching.

00:08:49.109 --> 00:08:51.029
Please be sure to like, comment and

00:08:51.029 --> 00:08:52.799
subscribe to our channel and ring the

00:08:52.799 --> 00:08:54.489
bell below. That way, you're notified

00:08:54.489 --> 00:08:56.721
whenever we post a new video.
[music ends]