Chuck Klosterman raises some interesting points about canned laughter in his essay, and I agree with many of these points. His writing style is sharp, dry and to the point and its easy to tell how someone like him could hate laugh tracks if he is personally anything like his writing style. He makes some interesting points regarding the sophistication of the humor involved with or without the presence of laugh tracks. He says that TV programs that forgo the laugh track end up inevitably being taken more seriously; I think this makes a lot of sense. Not that they are serious in the sense that they are less funny, but that the quality of the material and jokes are treated more seriously. When this happens, there is much more room for different comedic styles other than the very surface level joke-and-laugh humor that is found in most laugh track-ed programs.
Klosterman also raises some interesting points about laughter in American culture. When I think back on the way I have communicated with people, I notice that there is a lot of unnecessary laughter. It’s completely second nature. Laughter is treated almost like conversation filler, or something that lets the person that I’m talking to know that, whether I care or not, I find it relevant or interesting.
These topics are interesting to me and I look forward to hearing everyone’s opinions in class.
No comments:
Post a Comment