We Asked Them — Should Comedy Shows Use Phony Laughter? (1954) 🇺🇸

We asked them — Should comedy shows use phony laughter?

Danny Thomas, who films “Make Room for Daddy” before an audience of 300: “Yes, if there’s no audience present. It enhances the listener’s pleasure. Three or four people sitting in a living room won’t respond alone. Laughter gives them the feeling they’re joining in with thousands of other people.”

Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, “I Love Lucy”: “We are not in favor of ‘canned’ laughter on television. A performer in comedy comes across far better when an audience is witnessing his efforts. He comes up to opening-night tempo with a laughing, applauding audience. ‘Canned’ laughter is obviously phony.”

Gale Storm, “My Little Margie”: “Our show is filmed with motion picture technique, which precludes an audience. As far as I know, sponsors ask for ‘built-in’ laughs. I don’t know if that’s good or bad, but an audience sees each Margie episode and the laughs — legitimate ones — are registered on the sound track.”

George Burns, “The Burns & Allen Show”: “A situation comedy show should not only prompt laughter; it should also offer laughter. What viewers hear on our show is an actual audience reaction of some 200 people who have previewed the same show in a screening room. We don’t insert laughs we don’t earn.”

Ray Bolger, whose “Ray Bolger Show” has changed its policy and retains studio responses: “‘Canned’ laughter spoils the viewer’s enjoyment because the mechanized sound upsets his normal reaction. A live studio audience reacts spontaneously, often pointing up that what seems a straight line is a plot joke.”

Joan Davis, “I Married Joan”: “We preview our program in a theater before an audience and we record their natural laughter. We have shown the same programs to an audience of three or four. The reaction was the same, but they kept the laughs to themselves. When people hear others laughing, they join in.”

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Collection: TV Guide (Washington | Baltimore), 23 October 1954