Laugh Tracks

Prior to reading "'Ha ha," he said. "Ha, ha.'" I never gave laugh tracks much thought, they have always seemed to be just another component of most TV shows. After reading this, however, I had a lot of different ideas flowing through my mind. Chuck Klosterman is completely against the use of laugh tracks, I am honestly not sure what to think of it. I feel like Klosterman is being a little drastic, he thinks that laugh tracks are in a way "programming" us to know when to laugh, and also taking away our natural ability to decide what is funny and what isn't. Personally I think that everyone's ideas about what is funny differs depending on personality, and I don't think that a laugh track has the ability to undermine how we feel about things. Also, another point that Chuck makes is that the absence of a laugh track makes a sitcom funnier, I disagree. I think that it can alter the type of humor that is present. For instance, Friends uses a laugh track but Always Sunny in Philadelphia doesn't. I find both comedies really funny and thoroughly enjoy them equally just in different ways. Friends is stupid funny, everyday type of funny.  Its Always Sunny  is more of a perverted, dark and sometimes dry humor. Therefore they obviously both have different types of humor, but even if one or the other changed, they would still have different vibes as well as still being humorous. I suppose that I disagree more than agree with Mr. Chuck Kolsterman, laugh tracks might be a little cheesy and over the top at times, but I don't think that they have such a negative effect on society as Chuck says.