laugh track

• laughtrack
• laugh-track

laugh track (plural laugh tracks)

1. The soundtrack of laughter sounds that accompanies a television comedy show
   • 1997, George Carlin, Brain Droppings‎, New York: Hyperion Books, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 173:

     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.

   • 2004, Robert Kubey, Creating Television, →ISBN:

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

   • 2012, Ridley Pearson, No Witnesses, →ISBN:

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

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

• canned laughter
• laughter track