Hacking the laugh track
"The kids will forget to leave a beat after the jokes, for when we
sweeten the show," he told me between takes — "sweeten" being the
euphemism for the addition of canned laughter. "So I’m laughing to keep
them from going too fast. If we’re here until 9 o’clock tonight, you’ll
still hear me laughing at the same jokes the same way."
This from Dan Schneider, formerly the funny fat kid on Head of the Class -- not to mention the blubber-bound neighbor Ricky in Better off Dead -- but now the creative mastermind behind Nickelodeon's tween programming.
Ah, tweens: Weened on internet vids, social networks, and other forms of interactive entertainment, but here we are trotting out the same old tricks. We're 'sposed to be so damned media savvy, so do we still need artificial sweetener? Do we still need the laugh track?
Nah. Exhibit A: Smosh. Exhibit B: KevJumba. Exhibit C: SoPedestrian. Not a laugh track among them. Instead of relying on the typical TV comedy set-up -- situational absurdity, more situational absurdity, punchline -- amateur vids rely on quick editing and the in-your-face enthusiasm of the star. TV shows build in jokes. But amateur vids are the jokes.
Better yet: The barely stifled, off-camera chuckle that includes you, the viewer, in the joke. TV programs rely on the suspension of disbelief. The cameraman isn't supposed to exist. Not so in online video, where the cameraman is the video's raison d'etre. The off-camera laugh is the new laugh track.
So consider the profane comedy of HodgeStanson. The duo -- two Texas men barely out of their teens, one white, one black -- has created a sensation on YouTube with videos depicting young men telling stories that contain extremely violent language. But the genius of the videos -- called "unforgiveable" -- is that the violent and sexist language is undermined by the laughter of both actor and cameraman. So while the actor relates a story of his depraved relations with women, he cracks up at the sheer absurdity of what he's saying. The audience -- you, alone, or with friends by your computer -- can't help but join in.
Just sayin. The laugh track may be indispensable for sitcoms, but the funniest, newest, hippest YouTube comedians include you in the joke. You're not laughing at them. You're laughing with them.
