Who is Responsible for This Laugh?

[Pete Tranter’s Sister]

You wanted to cheer, you filth.

[Jonathan Capps]

Nah, the slow-mo shot of the crew was definitely in it on the Trojan recording night. However, the tow-rope gag didn’t exist then – instead we got shown a storyboard of the Trojan in the cargo bay, as per the original intent for that shot.

Oh, we’re completely at cross purposes here. That’ll teach me for not paying attention, I didn’t realise this was about the slow-mo scene.

[Nick R]

In terms of Red Dwarf; nothing annoys me quite as much as the smug groans from the audience members who twig Lister’s grassy knoll plan and need to announce it. Yeah, well done you fucking geniuses; you got the reference.

I quite like that lone “oh-HOOO!” noise. After years of watching my recording of the broadcast, when I got Xtended it was one of those bits where something seemed missing.

I also don’t think it was necessarily done through any need to announce their cleverness. Couldn’t it just have been an involuntary reaction from someone impressed with the idea?

[John Hoare]

Relevant to this thread. (The second half of the piece, anyway.)

http://www.dirtyfeed.org/2016/09/hi-de-hi-edits-1-raiding-the-funny-cupboard/

[Moonlight]

Ripping my VII DVD and I notice the second laugh in Tikka to Ride (I always watched the extended version so I didn’t know), not fifteen seconds in, is that fucking awful stock laugh laughing at the fact that Lister has just picked up a camera.

I’m planning to do a fanedit of Tikka which would include replacing all the CGI with model shots, but it now occurs to me I can also mute that goddamn laugh by swapping in the audio from the extended over it any time it appears. Since it never laughs after an actual joke, I don’t need to worry about screwing up the real audience. Since it never laughs after an actual joke, you wonder what dumbass thought it should be there.

I’d love to interpolate too and restore the video look, but from what I’ve found researching the topic that’s going to be annoyingly complicated to do without having to purchase specialty software, if it’s even possible at all.

[Pete Tranter’s Sister]

It is possible as I’ve done it.

Last year, I reconstructed Ouroboros into a 720p50 master from the original, which is in essence 288p25.

The original was de-interlaced, motion interpolated from 25 to 50 frames per second, re-sized and the original colour grading was flattened to pull it away from the film lighting enveloping the sets at the time and towards Series I & II.

[Stabbim the Skutter]

There’s a guy in Series III who constantly goes “TUH-HUH-HUH-HUH-HUH”. Best example I can think of is after “This is a scalpel.” Drives me up the wall. One of the few improvements of the Remastered versions is that they got rid of him.

[Ben Paddon]

Last year, I reconstructed Ouroboros into a 720p50 master from the original, which is in essence 288p25.

Did you share that one? Or clips from it, at least? I vaguely recall seeing some of it, wouldn’t mind giving it another gander.

[Jawscvmcdia]

If you think the laughter in Red Dwarf is bad, check out some episodes of Steptoe and Son. Here are a few examples:

(25 m 27 s)

https://youtu.be/zjcUcTJPEDs?t=1469

(24 m 29 s)

(4 m 19 s)

Even Mr Bean had its fair few of annoying laughs:

https://youtu.be/Bz6D6kBloic?t=230

(3 m 52 s)

[Pete Tranter’s Sister]

Deleted, but I may resurrect it as a bonus for the ‘Restored’ project.

[Taiwan Tony]

Oh man. I loved that Mr. Bean laugh.

[Jimboid]

I thought common thinking around these parts was that there was no such thing as canned laughter in Dwarf…

But surely this counts as that?

It’s not like they reappropriated the laugh from elsewhere as it crops up in other shows.

I don’t want to open a whole XI episode 6…

[Ben Paddon]

<blcokquote>I thought common thinking around these parts was that there was no such thing as canned laughter in Dwarf…
But surely this counts as that?
Nope. Canned laughter is the act of placing a laugh track where none previously existed. Sweetened laughter is the act of taking an existing laugh track and “enhancing” it with additional laughs.

[Ben Paddon]

(Fecked up the bluhcockquote there, didn’t I? Oh well.)

Distinction: How I Met Your Mother is not shot in front of an audience, is not shown to an audience. The laugh track is pure artifice. That’s canned laughter.

Big difference there, I’m sure you’ll agree.

[Jimboid]

I always imagined it was sweetened by tinkering with the genuine lulz, chopping and changing, layering them up or something…rather than just pasting from a pre-existing generic laugh bank.

That seems like sweetening *with* canned laughter. To me, anyways.

[Pete Part Three]

Potato/potatoe

Sweetened laughter is canned. It’s been re-appropriated. Laughter may have existed on a scene, but if you’re adding additional laughs from somewhere else (irrespective of whether it’s from the same show), then those specific laughs are canned. I’m not sure how there can be a distinction, just because there’s already laughter there.

I’ve seen multiple claims that HIMYM was shown to audiences, Red Dwarf VII style.

[Tarka Dal]

Oh thank fuck. I know I’m responsible for two horrible laughs in Dwarf, one in Only The Good, but thankfully not guilty on this occasion.

On the whole OTT audience laughter doesn’t bother me, whether it’s a scream, a woop or something similar unusual.

[Tarka Dal]

What does tend to bother me is over-abundant applause. Occasions where mundane gags generate a round of applause.

It’s something I’ve noticed more from Series 8 onwards and so I’ve always put it down to the result of a bunch of rabid Dwarfers feeding off each others enthusiasm at the live recordings.

[Ben Paddon]

I’ve seen multiple claims that HIMYM was shown to audiences, Red Dwarf VII style.

True for the pilot and at least part of first season, but the majority of the show uses canned laughter. They did shoot some stuff in front of an audience towards the end, but only a handful of scenes and only for smaller sets.

Keep in mind, I’m getting all of this from people I know who worked on the show across multiple seasons.

[Moonlight]

Really? I had no idea canned laughter was ever more than a very rare thing after the ’80s, let alone being used for a popular modern sitcom like HIMYM. That seems so anachronistic.

[Pete Part Three]

Blimey. Have to wonder why they bothered. It moved as frenetically as an episode of Scrubs, and that avoided a laugh-track completely.

[Moonlight]

I’ll give them credit, they at least shot it multi-camera like an audience show. Or looking multi-camera, anyway.

[Toxteth O-Grady]

I can’t believe nobody’s mentioned the stupid laugh that’s heard at the end (or should that be the beginning?) of the bar room tidy in Backwards. You know, the one that sounds like telephone ringing underwater?
Remarkably, I’ve even played this laugh backwards and it sounds exactly the same either way; utterly moronic.
I don’t think this is a sweetened laugh though, but a genuine on-set laugh. One that badly needed removing.

[Jawscvmcdia]

Is this the laugh you mean?

[Toxteth O-Grady]

Yup. That’s the one.

[Moonlight]

Oh yeah, I remember being really confused by that since laughter sounds just about the same backwards and forwards. I figured maybe it was supposed to be “backwards” laughter?

I tend to remember stuff like the topic’s “Ha-HAHA-haha” better because it’s just repeated. I can live with one stupid laugh, but I want to punch whoever thought “Ha-HAHA-haha” should be used seventy times an episode in the goddamn throat.

[Pete Tranter’s Sister]

That strange backwards laugh is the best in the episode, it sounds so strangely ’80s and of its time, it’s a right Essex giggle.

[Author]

Posts