Unpopular Opinion: Sitcoms with Laugh-tracks in The Background Are Boring When You Remove the Tracks

I’ve got a bone to pick with people who consume all kinds of sitcoms, laughing like a toddler getting tickled by his nanny-mum. Well, have you tried to imagine your favourite sitcoms without the laughter VFX?

Sitcoms are not the greatest comedy pieces after all, even our dearly beloved Friends flatters to deceive as long as the sound is being sweetened. What this sound-sweetening does is, feign the appearance, or rather the sound, of an engaged and entertained response to a show’s humour. However, certain times it seems like the VFX is what reminds you of where the humour is. Peep this snippets of Friends without laugh-tracks.  

In this snippet, Ross talks about his experience attacking women and how he’s often failed. He certainly felt he had gotten some new cool tips from the instructor to make him have another go. It was a massive failure. Without the laughter VFX, this part feels completely empty, and there is zero connection with the audience. The pauses- times when they stare at each other, waiting for the laughs to ensue, is really creepy. Check out the next snippet.

Owen (Daryl Sabara) learns he’s adopted. However, there’s really nothing they say here other than random stuff, and how many times do you just say random stuff and people are laughing and cheering? The answer is one out of a hundred times.

This is not a Friends slander, the sitcom, alongside How I Met Your Mother has a special place in my heart but, I just think it flatters with the VFX and is not as humorously packed as shows like Everybody Hates Chris, even Shameless. Imagine if we get classic comedies like the Dumb and Dumber movie series turned into TV shows, we’d certainly not need laugh tracks to spot the humour.