alternate title for this entry
"We don't need no stinking laugh track"
I don't watch much TV...too busy wasting time on NBA analysis web-surfing. But I catch a glimpse of "the Office" from MyBetterHalf's viewing.
I like how they'll put jokes out there, some are subtle, and they don't tell you to laugh with a laugh track, or actors acting like they just received a punch line.
a few examples:
Michael was going to a high school for interns so they could "youth-inize" the place.
Or when Pam said, "OMG, he's really going to kill himself pretending to kill himself."
Or when Michael wanted ideas of what to do with wet cement, got a suggestion he didn't understand, pointed at Pam and yelled, "Pam, translate." That whole scene seemed to me like a social group that had a history together.
Another show that had a social group pre-show history. Buffy. I always enjoyed the Willow - Xander dialog. And that show had some hilarious moments w/o a laugh track. Or even sometimes w/o dialog ("the Gentlemen" episode, when Anya uses hand gestures to get Xander to go have sex.)
I think that takes confidence to put a joke out there without a laugh track, like a string walking into a bar...
Posted by joncim at May 8, 2008 09:27 PM