It's 2014, haven't we moved far beyond telling the audience what jokes are funny? Granted, I haven't watched any show with a laugh track since That 70s Show but it's a bit baffling to me that some shows still use it.

Now that I think about how unfunny those shows are I'm beginning to think it's to drown out the crickets you'd hear otherwise.

I love laugh tracks... when used inappropriately for a joke itself.

I can't watch Big Bang Theory because the live audience laughs just like a laugh track and it makes me incandescently angry. It's a very, very stupid pet peeve to have, and friends tell me I'm missing out on a funny, nerdy show. But, yeah. If it has a laugh track I can't watch it.

yes

they make me feel less lonely

I tried watching an episode of "2 Broke Girls" and they need the laugh track because that's the only way you can tell that something "funny" happened.

I like them in Seinfeld and the Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon.

I don't notice them unless the show is not funny. But if the show is not funny then I won't be watching for long.

They are priceless in war documentaries.

How else would I know I'm supposed to laugh.

Most comedy shows produced today lack jokes. Comedies have really become stale with the political correctness bullshit and having to limit their vocabulary to not lose or insult your average viewer. I also hate how all family comedies the adults act like 5 year olds and the kids act like adults.

I like them but only when they aren't overused. I find laughter when a character says "Hi, how are you?" or something similar that is not funny, annoying.

Depends on how the laugh track is used. Canned laughter can be hilarious if it is, itself, part of the comedy. Canned laughter used as an audience cue it insulting.

I love shows that are filmed live. I love the way the actors have to work with the audience with out breaking the fourth wall. Happy days is still one of my favorites for this. I can watch this over and over. I also love watching the actors try to maintain character. This has really become almost a part of production over the last ten years or so.

I used to go to a lot of live recordings of TV shows a while back. The good shows were some of the best fun you can ever have, but some of the lesser shows do hake a lot of work for you to "play your part". One particularly bad show I was a part of the cast and crew kept stopping filming on purpose to say "that was meant to be funny! Why didn't you Laugh. you know, like this! hahaha! See its easy." etc. To be honest, that made that specific show fantastic. Of course none of that could ever go into the final edit that aired on TV. Such a shame.

There was quite a few shows that I am sure went for longer than they really should have because they were far more fun to make than they were to watch on TV. Two great examples for the Aussies reading would be "Bingles" and "Let the Blood Run Free". Each 20 minute episode of both of those shows would take hours and hours (I think one particular episode of LtBRF took nearly 6 hours, yet almost no one left because it was just way too awesome to be there.

Man, isn't that the truth. How is that show still on the air? Perhaps the dark haired girls rack. All they do is lame sexual innuendo, gay jokes, and height jokes.

This is psychological (Edit : psychosomatic to be precise). Past the fact that the "laughs" tells you when a joke is made, it is used for the contagious effect of laughter (if someone laugh next to you and there are laughs in the show you are watching, you are more likely to be in the mood to smile/laugh).

This is no remedy for bad humor though .... and this is not the reason why I completely stopped watching Big Bang Theory either.

I laughed IRL at that. Not sure if that's good or bad :/

I like laugh tracks, when used inappropriately or ironically