Paid Audience Members?

[lewstonewar]

Interesting article on Cracked.com
6 Realities of the Secret World of Paid TV Audience Members

2 and a Half Men is obliquely mentioned...if one Chuck Lorre show does this it's not a big leap to assume others are the same.

The audience is likely laughing not at what is going on on-stage but at the something actually entertaining going on in the audience.

[ricardo shillyshally]

I realised that the laughter(real,fake,sweetened) is part of the show. I've just been reading about how laughter is a social experience, but with inserted laughter even people at home can have the same experience. 'Soon after the advent of the laugh track, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz devised a method of filming with a live audience using a multi-camera setup. This process was originally employed for their sitcom I Love Lucy, which used a live studio audience and no laugh track.[2] Multi-camera shows with live audiences sometimes used recorded laughs to supplement responses. While witnessing an early post-production editing session, comedian Milton Berle once pointed out a particular joke and said, "as long as we're here doing this, that joke didn't get the response we wanted". After Douglass inserted a hearty laugh after the failed joke, Berle reportedly commented, "See? I told you it was funny".'(Eric Levin)

Of course it's also a prompt, subconscious.

[Nutz]

The audience is made up of VIPs (usually friends of the cast and staff, agents, etc) the rest of the audience is provided by audience participation company's such as Audience Unlimited. The audience "soundtrack" can be taken from anything once you get in the studio. Usually they have the audience watch a clip show of "funny" moments from the show, they watch a completed episode from a recent taping, they have a comedian in the audience to keep people laughing while they set up the next shot or need to do rewrites. Plus of course the live taping of the the episode scenes. (At least this was how they handled it when I still went to tapings)

[ricardo shillyshally]

I was hoping you could give us an actual insight into how TBBT do it. As Eric Levin said, it's actually become a part of the structure of a sitcom. It does seem like they just collect laughter, and mix it in post production. It is a manipulation, encouraging us to laugh. I watched a couple of episodes yesterday, and tried to make myself conscious of the laugh track. I realised certain gags weren't funny at all. 'Like B's father telling Howard that if he dies in space, B will find someone else.' not funny, but big laugh. (I feel like Pavlov's dog!)

[CassandraElise]

Well, judging from the nauseating taping reports, the same sycophantic fans get into the taping every time. So they honestly could be laughing that hard because they have been brainwashed into thinking TBBT is the I Ching of comedy.

[ricardo shillyshally]

I've never listened to the taping reports. I feel like I just want to see the finished show. But I caught a couple of late S7 episodes yesterday; full marks for recycling! It's terrible to see them just rehashing the same jokes, cliched ideas, even doing 'pee jokes'.

[Nutz]

Well I've been to quite a few tapings in the past (19) and I noticed that the laughter that happens at the live taping are quite different from the "soundtrack" when watching on T.V.. Case in point The Recombination Hypothesis was a truly unfunny episode. Sheldon's cardboard Spock problems and a Leonard fantasy so bad that most audience members were scratching their heads at the end on why he would want to get back together with Penny. King of the Nerds my ass. They spent hours rewriting scenes to get any sort of laughter from us, but when I watch the show on T.V it apparently was the funniest thing since Buster Keaton & Monty Python put together.

[ricardo shillyshally]

What so they basically run it through with audience, dependant on laughs, go back in writing room, and then compare response? That seems very hit and miss. Friends and family will probably laugh at anything. I'm not sure who's laughing on this session, they may be bored, or drunk!

[FlyingMonkey]

I'm surprised they keep letting the same tiara-wearing group of people go to every taping. They're MB/AFF groupies and are not representative of the general viewing audience. Some of them from the swamp actually brag about how they can hear themselves laughing. And they've discussed how they should react to various scenarios, ex. delightful squealing during Shamy moments, groans or silence when AFF is dissed. The thought that the writing may be influenced by their reactions is disturbing.

[devilbk]

I'm surprised they keep letting the same tiara-wearing group of people go to every taping. They're MB/AFF groupies and are not representative of the general viewing audience. Some of them from the swamp actually brag about how they can hear themselves laughing. And they've discussed how they should react to various scenarios, ex. delightful squealing during Shamy moments, groans or silence when AFF is dissed. The thought that the writing may be influenced by their reactions is disturbing.

I completely agree that they should be stopped. How many actual fans are unable to attend tapings because these zealots are always there. It's tiarafying.