this post was submitted on 03 Feb 2026
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Giving Seinfeld shit for having a laugh track doesn't make sense. There are shows from eras before and after using laugh tracks, so Seinfeld is not an outlier in that regard. However, Jerry's occupation is literally a comedian. Having a laugh track in Seinfeld thus makes more sense than most shows that have one.
The laugh track is also used to fill in the pause the actors had to take due to the audience reaction. Just like with comedy shows people in groups laugh more than when you are watching at home.
This has always bugged me. In any bygone, popular TV show when an actor first shows up there's a roar of applause, claps, stomps, whistling and shouting for 10 seconds where they just stand, kind of awkwardly waiting for noise to stop in order to say their line. I mean it's ok for a live crowd, but cut that shit off my TV show for fuck's sake.
Gotta fill up that 20 minute runtime somehow! Add catch phrases and innuendo (for the obligatory oooh from the laugh track machine) and you have half an episode, right there
It's a throwback to pre-TV stage shows. The types of people funding TV shows are old and set in their ways and back then they'd make their shows just like The Honeymooners or I Love Lucy.
The ‘audience reaction’ existed because the show needed a laugh track from the audience. Justifying one by the other is circular reasoning at its finest.
i don't like any show with a laughtrack
Was it a laugh track? Was it not live audience?
People seem to forget that Live Audience used to be a thing
It was normally a live audience, with exceptions for things like pre-recorded exterior scenes
Seinfeld had more scenes than people realize.
I don’t have a problem with laugh tracks existing. I have a problem with shows not recorded before a live audience having laughter added in.
Is that just a general statement? Because Seinfeld was recorded in front of an audience. As a general statement I agree with that.
Yeah, I was being general.
Does a laugh track destroy the show? No. But there is no 10/10 top tier show with a laugh track.
Edit: people keep replying with shows that are, at best, sensible chuckles.
Mr. Bean.
M*A*S*H?
I Love Lucy.
Golden Girls
Fawlty Towers.
Keeping Up Appearances, Only Fools and Horses, Harry Enfield and Chums