Mondo Knows Facts
The sitcom laugh track came from radio
Canned laughter carried over when comedy moved to television American radio comedies often had a studio audience whose laughter was part of the broadcast, and television kept the convention when sitcoms moved to film. Recorded laughter was later added in post-production so shows shot without an audience could still sound live. Some producers fought against the practice, and others relied on it. It sits in Mondo's movies & tv collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.
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Tags: television, comedy, radio
The sitcom laugh track came from radio: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- Canned laughter carried over when comedy moved to television. The figure is taken from Paley Center for Media, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a movies & tv fact?
- Yes. It sits on the Movies & TV shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.