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Brick No120: How sitcoms get you laughing
By Matt Weston, Tuesday 14 December 2004 I am, I admit, a bit behind schedule today. In the name of research I've been watching and re-watching tapes and DVDs of some of my favourite sitcoms. And in a less funny moment, our email server broke down. The last couple of weeks, I've chewed over some pretty weighty issues: from transparency & truth to secrets & lies. So I thought I'd offer you some light relief today. Question: what do you think about those laugh tracks that play over TV sitcoms? (Some people describe it as "canned" laughter, but as I'll explain in a New York minute, that's not strictly right.) Answer: If you're like most people, you don't like them. They're intrusive and off-putting, aren't they? And they are an insult to your intelligence (as if we need telling when to laugh). Anyway, don't only the weakest comedies employ them? Well, in a word: nope. With the explainable exception of The Office - which plays the silence for awkwardness - almost every classic sitcom of the last five decades has been backed with a laugh track. It's just that you only really notice a laugh track when (a) it's faked, (b) it's too loud or (c) the jokes are lame. Why laughter breeds laughter And laugh tracks work. They provide a subconscious cue, and prompt a semi-automatic, semi-infectious response. In "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion", Robert Cialdini goes to town on the subject. He cites numerous studies that have shown that laugh tracks make test audiences laugh longer, louder and more often. RC calls this an example of "the power of social proof". "Social proof" simply refers to the fact that we do what other people do. Laughter breeds laughter. And here's the small business parallel - demand breeds demand. As Harvey Mackay put it: "If your business is in demand, everyone wants it." I've written before about how stimulating testimonials, queues, and waiting lists can breed demand. (See Brick No54.) But how do I square "canned laughter" with the last couple of bricks on transparency and truth? Isn't it fakery? Time for that explanation I promised earlier. Most laugh tracks aren't "canned". As Graham Linehan, who penned Father Ted, puts it: "[It is a myth that the laughter is canned.] A sitcom with a laughter track is filmed, in the words of Ted Danson, in front of a live studio audience; how many people, I dunno, two hundred say, but they're there. I know because I've seen them and I've sat among them . . . the laughter you hear is the laughter that was there." The very same rule applies to testimonials (and other forms of "social proof"). David Ogilvy once wrote: "Testimonials from celebrities get high recall scores, but I have stopped using them because readers remember the celebrity and forget the product." "What's more, they assume that the celebrity has been bought, which is usually the case. On the other hand, testimonials from experts can be persuasive - like having an ex-burglar testify that he had never been able to crack a Chubb safe." Celebs give you "canned" testimonials. By asking real experts to use and endorse your product, you stimulate bona fide "social proof". So the line I would draw is between simulation and stimulation. Don't pay people to eat in your restaurant, but do sit the customers you have in the window seats. By the same token, don't make up testimonials, but do make sure you collect one from every single customer you have. Remember to sign up: back to top |
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