A brief history of laugh tracks
Love it or hate it, the laugh track has been a stalwart feature of television comedy for the past half century. It began when a man named Charley Douglass got fed up with studio audiences' poor responses to jokes. Sometimes they would laugh too long, or too loud, or not long enough, or even at the wrong time. Douglass started by "Sweetening" the laughs, fading out the laughs when they went to long, adding addition laughter to the jokes that flopped, etc. Eventually, he built "The Laff Box," which was operated by typer writer-style keys and footpedals, sampling some 320 laughs. Since then, laughter-in-a-can has come in and out of style, but Douglass still has a monopoly on the industry.
Check out the clip of Friends above without the laugh track. Notice how the actors had to adapt to build in pauses and allow room for the track.Full story at Mental Floss.
