The Big Bang Theory

[Captain Awful]

Finally, a show worth watching on CBS. From the producer of some show I've never seen called Two and a Half Men, I give you The Bang Theory, a show about two physicists and they're difficulty in adjusting into low IQ society. Actually, in typical American fashion, it has something to do with a love interest, but beyond that the show is outstanding. Funny, witty, intelligent, I have no idea how it's still on the air. The characters are outstanding, especially Sheldon (Jim Parsons), and well fleshed out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGT71Zv2tGU&feature=fvst

[Reasonableman]

Ah, got ahold of the first season on DVD, watched it all in a couple of days. Fantastic stuff. And most of it was much too easy for me to identify with...

[Captain Awful]

It's ironic that I first started watching the show because it was featured on UK's Channel 4. US network television frightens me.

[Ham Denture]

Man I love this show. Season two hasn't aired in NZ yet, but I'm mates with a pirate. Y'ar. Knocked those episodes off like popcorn. Sweet, nerdy popcorn.
It's good to see a show with a more cerebral twist.

[Neen]

My feelings on the show notwithstanding, why the hell is the laugh track still around?

[CAPTAIN CAPSLOCK]

I haven't ever heard of this, and I watch television constantly.
What channel does it run on?

[Demaar]

My feelings on the show notwithstanding, why the hell is the laugh track still around?Lets people know when they should be laughing.

[Neen]

That's not very 'cerebral'.

[shMerker]

Lets people know when they should be laughing.

In a college psychology class, I had read a treatise on comedy explaining that a laugh was formed when the storyteller created tension, then, with the punch line, released it. I didn't quite get this concept, nor do I still, but it stayed with me and eventually sparked my second wave of insights. With conventional joke telling, there's a moment when the comedian delivers the punch line, and the audience knows it's the punch line, and their response ranges from polite to uproarious. What bothered me about this formula was the nature of the laugh it inspired, a vocal acknowledgment that a joke had been told, like automatic applause at the end of a song.

A skillful comedian could coax a laugh with tiny indicators such as a vocal tic (Bob Hope's "But I wanna tell ya") or even a slight body shift. Jack E. Leonard used to punctuate jokes by slapping his stomach with his hand. One night, watching him on "The Tonight Show," I noticed that several of his punch lines had been unintelligible, and the audience had actually laughed at nothing but the cue of his hand slap.

(From Smithsonian (http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/funny-martin-200802.html?c=y&page=1))

Also instructive (http://www.theonion.com/content/news/cbs_to_release_own_version_of_nbcs).

[Demaar]

Wait, so they're remaking The Office again? Why? The British and original American versions are hardly old...

[shMerker]

Demaar, are you really not familiar with The Onion (http://www.theonion.com/content/video/in_the_know_should_the_government?utm_source=a-section)?

[Demaar]

Oh lol. that'll teach me to not read an article without looking at the URL... or anything besides the content.

[Captain Awful]

Having been subjected to laugh tracks my entire life, I'm very good at pretending not to hear them. I agree that they're dumb though.

[Demaar]

I agree they're dumb, though I had a strange experience when watching season 9 of Red Dwarf. They got rid of the laugh tracks for that season if you're not aware, and every time something I found funny happened I kind of expected the laugh track to run and was almost disappointed each time it didn't, heh.

[shMerker]

Yeah, there's a kind of whiplash when you're expecting them and they don't show up. The first time I saw a TV comedy with no laugh track (I think it was Sports Night) it really freaked me out.