There's a lot of things that can ruin an otherwise decent sitcom. A cheesy script or underwritten characters is one. Cringey, outdated jokes or overused, tired tropes is another. But when it comes to ...

When was the last time you spared a thought about sitcom laugh tracks? Probably years. Maybe decades? Sitcoms with background laughter have seemed almost dead, definitely and firmly dying, for a very ...

Charles Douglas invented the laugh track with the innocent intention of cuing the audience in case they failed to pick up a joke as intended. But before long, laugh tracks sneaked their way into ...

Over years of watching television, fans have almost tuned out the tracks of laughter that are played over the scenes. If they come to think about it, are laugh tracks really necessary for sitcoms? Or ...

What happened to the laugh track? We're sorry, but something went wrong while fetching your podcast feeds. Please contact us at plus@slate.com for help. This episode ...

I ran into an old episode of Hogan’s Heroes the other day that stuck me as odd. It didn’t have a laugh track. Ironically, the show was one where two pilots were ...

What is this silence that surrounds us? Can it be measured? Can it be heard? More importantly, is Roommates—the ABC Family sitcom that is basically a parody of a sitcom made real—filmed in a void?

All the Latest Game Footage and Images from Laugh Track You’re now the lead writer for Juno’s World, a perfectly normal sitcom in which nothing strange or horrible happens, ever! Choose your scripts, ...