Why do Sitcoms have laughing track at the background?

  I love F.r.i.e.n.d.s. series so much and I always wanted to recommend the series to my friends but succeeded only in 2 cases. Many would start watching the first episode but have not got past 3 episodes. Do you know the common complaints I get? There is a laughing track even for awful jokes. There must be a reason for the laughing track, right? Let’s explore them.

Imagine you go to a place where you have not been there before and also you don’t have any knowledge what the culture of the place is. What would you do? You just see around the people and learn from them. If majority of the people do something, then that must be the appropriate behaviour at that place. Most people won’t jump the line at an airport but more likely to do that in supermarket in a semi-urban place. 

There are around 100,000 patients waiting for kidney from a donor in the US and 4,000 patients are added every month. Hence, there is a huge demand for kidney but supply side is very less. Considering this scenario, when a new kidney comes patient should be eager to accept the kidney. But the refusal rate is 97.1%. Say for example patient at the 50th place was asked to accept the kidney but she may think that if the 49-people rejected it then there must be something wrong with the organ. The reason may be different like the particular organ may not the suitable for the patient’s body.

So, when the audience at the background laughs or when background laughing track is played, you may get the signal at the back of the mind that if so many people are laughing then it must be funny. In an experiment, it is found that laughing tracks made the audience to rate the material as funnier, made the audience to laugh longer and it is effective for awful jokes.

One more thing, don’t blame the technology for this laughing tracks. There is a phenomenon called claquing that started around 1820s. People were recruited and paid to laugh, applaud and produce enthusiasm during the play to elevate the content.

Dedicated to all my friends who started watching F.r.i.e.n.d.s. but stopped it because of the laughing tracks.