So SF Debris Is Gonna Do Red Dwarf In October?

[Aotrs Commander]

For the record, Red Dwarf is my second favourite comedy period, and it and Blackadder have jostled for position of top over the years.

I think the live audience is pretty essential to Red Dwarf (and pretty much any comedy of its ilk), personally - the cast work *much* better with an audience. Back to Earth VERY noticiably didn't have that and it very much showed, along with all its other flaws.

It is an effect I am intimately familiar with, as someone who has been doing panto for nearly thirty years; that extra kick from the audience reactions is what pushes it over the top. It really is that simple. Regardless of you actually interacting with them, you're playing up for the crowd. And when you don't do that - you don't get the same out of the performers and it simply won't be as funny.

(Canned laughter, on the other hand, is bad because it gives none of the advantages and all of the drawbacks.)



I mean, it's been a staple of British comedy since forever... Pretty much all (possibly even actually all) of the British comedies - certainly any I can think of or have personally ever watched[1] - Dad's Army, 'Allo 'Allo, Last of the Summer, Are You Being Served?, Up Pompeii (the audience was practically a necessity for that one, with Lurkio's incessant forth wall breaking) to name but a scant few - all of them were filmed in front of a live audience.


[1]Maybe the Office or the Thick of It don't but I only know them from reputation; I have seen neither of those shows as they are not my sort of humour.

[nebagram]

According to reports the audience noise actually had to be toned DOWN when you know who made his cameo in the final episode of Series 12. I have no problem with laugh tracks in sitcoms though I never wondered why they were necessary- I know when I'm amused, I know when to laugh. Though there's a part of me that wants to see Okona edited to include a laugh track. It won't make it any better but it'd make it more cathartic.

[Fianna]

Ever heard of laughter being infectious? Hearing other people laugh can make you more prone to laugh as well. Sometime, try watching a comedy movie by yourself, then try watching it again with some other people around, and see if the group experience doesn't make the laughter increase.

Plus, laugh tracks in sitcoms essentially fill the same role as a musical score. You could say "I don't need creepy music to play as the serial killer is stalking this couple, I can already tell it's meant to be scary", but the music really does add to the viewing experience. Notice that single camera sitcoms which don't use a laugh track tend to use music a lot more to fill the void.

[GrantM]

Ever heard of laughter being infectious? Hearing other people laugh can make you more prone to laugh as well. Sometime, try watching a comedy movie by yourself, then try watching it again with some other people around, and see if the group experience doesn't make the laughter increase.

Not the same thing, you see the audience there, in sitcoms/sketch shows you do not and it kills the immersion and experience hands down. In short, production companies needs to abandon the "film a comedy TV show in front of an audience" format ASAP

[clearspira]

Ever heard of laughter being infectious? Hearing other people laugh can make you more prone to laugh as well. Sometime, try watching a comedy movie by yourself, then try watching it again with some other people around, and see if the group experience doesn't make the laughter increase.

Not the same thing, you see the audience there, in sitcoms/sketch shows you do not and it kills the immersion and experience hands down. In short, production companies needs to abandon the "film a comedy TV show in front of an audience" format ASAP

I disagree entirely. Comedy is way funnier when others are laughing. The exception is when its canned, which yes they should ditch forever.

[Zoinksberg]

I have never found sitcoms or sketch comedies to require immersion. I'm not generally getting lost in the plot or immersed in the vast world, certainly not to the extent that someone laughing snaps me back to reality. Nor have I ever felt the need to "see" the people laughing to feel it is genuine.

Do you also think that watching a standup comedy show is wrong because there is an audience there and that the comedian should do their show in complete silence to make it more immersive?

[Aotrs Commander]

In short, production companies needs to abandon the "film a comedy TV show in front of an audience" format ASAP

Well, I don't think that's ever going to happen, no matter how much you want it to, I'm afraid.

I presonally think that random events in 4X and similiar strategy games are bane to their existance, but everyone else seems to like them, so I just consider having to put up with them tax to playing the game.

Realistically, your options are going to be 1) stop watching comedy shows (and confine yourself to comedy animation and/or films) or 2) takethe same approach to it as I do to random events.

[CrypticMirror]

Why, freaking why?. I hate Red Dwarf

Yeah, well; I hate the video game reviews, but you don't see me starting a thread to complain about it. Not everybody can like everything, and everybody's tastes are different. That is part of what makes Chuck's channel such a good one, he does a bit of everything. If you don't like one week's review, then there will be another one along next week which probably will be more to your tastes. Diversity is the spice of life, and all that.

In short, production companies needs to abandon the "film a comedy TV show in front of an audience" format ASAP

Well, I don't think that's ever going to happen, no matter how much you want it to, I'm afraid.

Indeed. Apart from anything else, audiences provide unique marketing and merchandising streams. Comic actors like playing to audiences, fans love to be in the audience, and sales people love selling tickets to fans, and selling special audience only merch (which the fans can then sell on ebay and fansites at vastly inflated sums to the lesser fans who couldn't afford to be at filming) and the marketing guys love being able to talk about how audiences loved the recording and really responded well. Filming in front of audiences is never going away.

[unknownsample]

Why, freaking why?. I hate Red Dwarf, I hate the fact it's to this day filmed in front of a studio audience. I wish after Back To Earth they ditched the studio audience. But no they did not. That's why it still sucks to this day. I heard in season 12 they recreated the first episode and brought back Holly and the Captian and the studio audience in the Dave era went nuts......which is why I wish if RD comes back for a 13th season the studio audience needs to fucking never come back at all

Yeah well I'm not keen on video games but you don't catch me complaining about the the video game reviews. As for your anti studio audience argument well it's so idiotic to call it an argument is an insult to arguments.

[GrantM]

So in other words, even in modern sitcoms/sketch shows, telling the audience to shut the fuck up will never be a thing?......that's a shame. Oh and people need to stop using the "Are The We Baddies" sketch from That Mitchell And Webb Look. A comedy sketch show that does not use a live audience?......fuck off with that