laugh track

plural laugh tracks · alternative laughtrack · alternative laugh-track

1. The soundtrack of laughter sounds that accompanies a television comedy show.

   Possibly a show with no laugh track would improve with a well-done laugh track.

   2004, Robert Kubey, Creating Television, →ISBN

   3 more examples

   You know where you never see a camcorder? At a funeral. Wouldn't that be fun? Especially if you didn't know any of the people there. Why not go to a stranger's funeral, and bring your camcorder? Have a little fun! Zoom in on the corpse's nose hairs. Then pull back, and pan over to the widow's tears. Get a tight shot of that. Do a montage of people wracked with grief. Then go home and put a laugh track on it! Smoke a joint and show it to your friends. That would be a lot of fun.

   1997, George Carlin, Brain Droppings, New York: Hyperion Books, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 173

   He felt it weird to have this discussion with a laugh track running faintly in the background.

   2012, Ridley Pearson, No Witnesses, →ISBN

   There were shows where they let us not use a laugh track ... and portions of shows. Whenever they were in the O.R. or serious surgery, there was no laugh track.

   2013, Allan Neuwirth, They'll Never Put That on the Air: The New Age of TV Comedy, →ISBN

   Synonyms: canned laughter, laughter track