Does everyone hate The Big Bang Theory?

Oh BBT is on opposite Community? Since Community is perpetually on the verge of cancellation, that kinda explains the hate.

Another article on multi-camera sitcoms: Acting for the Cameras.

Some very interesting stuff in there, especially from Neil Patrick Harris, but here’s something that really struck me:

In regard to the decision to buck the single-cam trend by including a laugh track, co-creator Carter Bays comments: “For some reason it felt like we wanted to have a laugh track on the show. Having worked on single camera shows, I know… you can fall victim to the thing of because there’s not a laugh after every joke, not every joke has to be funny. And we wanted to try to set the bar for ourselves and make it funny from start to finish.” Indeed, despite all of the critical praise for the cutting-edge hipness of recent single-cam sitcoms and the corresponding disparagement of the imposition of audience laughter (whether real or canned), some TV writers strongly defend the multi-camera format and believe that a laugh track simply puts constructive pressure on them to write funnier lines.

As television critic Alan Sepinwall describes:

“Going laughtrack-free is a more forgiving format for comedy writers. If you have a so-so joke that’s just there in the middle of a scene, no worries. But if that so-so joke is accompanied by real or fake laughter, it had better be funny enough to seem worthy of it, or else it goes from a so-so joke to a ‘Why are they laughing? That wasn’t funny!’ joke. The tougher task of feeding the laughtrack monster is why writers for traditional sitcoms often look down their noses at people who work on shows like Gilmore Girls or Scrubs.”

The thing is, it’s simply not possible for every joke to be funny.

I’m a fan of theater, and I also really enjoy late-night talk shows, which rely on audience feedback. But with a bad joke in a theater, actors can adjust on the fly, or Conan/Craig can play off the failure. In a sitcom with a laugh track* we’re spoon-fed the same amount of fake laughter for a bad joke, as we are for a good joke. It’s incredibly off-putting.

If a multi-camera sitcom were brave enough to incorporate audience groans, mild chuckles, and the extended periods of laughter for a REALLY good joke, I’d watch it.

*it’s all the same. Don’t give me the filmed in front of a live audience bullshit, when they’re reshooting takes to prompt for bigger laughs. Just go to the laugh track, save everyone some time.

Ehh, I’m sure there’s a rigour to properly “feeding the laughtrack monster,” but the Lorre sitcoms are proof that you don’t have to feed it jokes. There have been solid gold classics and wretched stinkers in both formats.

Yes, as it’s already pointed out, sitcoms aren’t made up of “jokes.” Why do you keep repeating this? We get it: You don’t like Chuck Lorre sitcoms! But your criticism that the show isn’t made up of jokes is a non-issue. A sitcom isn’t made up jokes, ever. Or at least, it shouldn’t be. Go back and watch an episode of the Dick Van Dyke show, and you will also hear a near-constant laugh track, and the same non-jokes causing it.

Sitcoms are made out of situations and jokes. Am I missing something?

Hey, Jason, you know what’s a really great use of your time? Arguing semantics with Andy Bates.

See also: Nailing Jello to a wall.

Andy: I’d just reiterate what I said before in reply to that; there are various ways to pace a sitcom, and various ways to “fill the laugh track” of a fast-paced sitcom; I think the Lorre shows set a pace they can’t fill well, and the quality and quantity of non-jokes is unappealing to me. It’s possible to make a semi-amusing jokeoid - c.f. maybe Friends or something - but I don’t feel the Lorre shows do, I think they have a lot of stuff like the no-Jewish-Hobbits line. We’re just of different minds on this one I’d say.

Yeah, I guess we disagree on this. But my original point about the “non-Jewish hobbits” line wasn’t that it lacks the traditional trappings of a joke, but that my Jewish friends don’t constantly make references to being Jewish like people on TV sitcoms tend to.

Maybe later. I’m busy pissing up a rope right now.

Man, first he screws up my Coulton song, now this…

(Reposted below because I am not smart enough to static-link to my own Flickr photos…)

I think it’s my Coulton song now!

I don’t hate it, but my mind can’t accept “something from nothing” just like that.

I was looking for the thread again, but couldn’t find it. Turns out it’s in this section - which means it’s probably not the scientific theory - but some kind of TV show. Oops ;)

Coincidentally, this show just hit its highest ratings ever this week.

I’m now two degrees of separation from Wolowitz and Raj.


NASATweetup Day 1 - KSC Tour 2011-07-07 010 by DennyA, on Flickr

(Pic wasn’t showing up, let’s try this again…)

And by the way, I’m 5’11". Mike Massimino is seriously tall. :)

I saw it fine the first go-around, but no worries. It’s still neat.

I’m pretty neutral on BBT but I do sometimes end up laughing despite myself if it happens to be on. I think the real genius of the show is just the excellent pace and timing. It almost doesn’t even matter what the characters say, as it moves along at such a ‘perfect’ sitcom speed.

…There’s no way that’s not a troll based on the reactions upthread