The Big Bang Theory

[Darth Waller]

Laugh tracks in comedies aren't new. They've been doing that since the 80s.

This is by far my favorite sitcom on TV right now.

 

[The Ween]

Laugh tracks in comedies aren't new. They've been doing that since the 60s.

This is by far my favorite sitcom on TV right now.

Fixed it for ya!

I love TBBT.

 

[GasparZizou]

I hate Chuck Lorre comedy. He's a hack and his shows just go through the motions. Arrested Development and Curb Your Enthusiasm, Extras, Seinfeld, so many shows are actually written with a level of actual genius. I've watched dozens of episodes of this and Two and a Half Men because of my roommates GF and all they do is cater. I get the obscure comic book and old tv or science references(way more than she does), they just aren't lol funny.

It's not all that obscure, they often go into details.

I lol frequently with this show, it's not like the rest of the CL's shows, this one actually has likeable characters and they're permanently being developed in a very well written way.

 

[GasparZizou]

Laugh tracks in comedies aren't new. They've been doing that since the 80s.

This is by far my favorite sitcom on TV right now.

I'd put Modern Family 1st and TBBT in close second, they're both great.

 

[Deckard]

Laugh tracks in comedies aren't new. They've been doing that since the 80s.

This is by far my favorite sitcom on TV right now.

Fixed it for ya!

I love TBBT.

Laugh Tracks were invented in the 40s because people weren't laughing at the jokes and they needed to sweeten the radio broadcasts to make them seem more interesting. <--- true.

I'd put Modern Family 1st and TBBT in close second, they're both great.

Neither are remotely funny to me. They have to cater to an audience far too large and can't take any risks. That isn't comedy imo. You can't restrict or put limits on comedy. Ask any comedian, he'll tell you the same.

I agree about the characters being written ok enough, obviously people care about them, they just aren't funny to me.

Same goes with HIMYM. What was funny about that ending?

Spoiler

His wife, a main character died, another lives on miserably in a state of divorce, and the yet another compromised everything he learned and grew from in the last second.

 

[GasparZizou]

Neither are remotely funny to me. They have to cater to an audience far too large and can't take any risks. That isn't comedy imo. You can't restrict or put limits on comedy. Ask any comedian, he'll tell you the same.

I agree about the characters being written ok enough, obviously people care about them, they just aren't funny to me.

Same goes with HIMYM. What was funny about that ending?

Spoiler

His wife, a main character died, another lives on miserably in a state of divorce, and the yet another compromised everything he learned and grew from in the last second.

I don't like HIMYM it's even more formulaic than 2 and a half-men imo.

Actually, TBBT caters to a more specific audience than Seinfeld, Malcolm or Married with children.

Comedy is to make you laugh, just that, there are no rules about the audience you cater to, the most successful comedies cater to the widest audiences.

I don't understand what you mean about taking risks though

 

[Deckard]

Taking risks, doing subjects that haven't been done. George Carlin's words you can't say on tv. etc.

Louie takes risks. Like when he did an episode where he went to Iraq to perform stand up for the troops there. You'll never see an episode of a comedy like that so much so that it got national attention. I don't mean that he endangered his life mind you. I mean that he did a show on a subject that most consider sort of taboo and wouldn't be a guarenteed success episode with a sitcom formula. Community even takes risks when they do things like a zombie episode.

Modern Family can't push the boundries of comedy because they have to appeal to old people, kids, and folks who generally just want light and non offensice ABC Disney entertainment and stumbled into a time slot after watching Dancing with Whatever. So you just end up with repacked stories that have been done a hundred times already. Watered down, not funny imo.

 

[ExMem-LarjaThwei]

I hate Chuck Lorre comedy. He's a hack and his shows just go through the motions. Arrested Development and Curb Your Enthusiasm, Extras, Seinfeld, so many shows are actually written with a level of actual genius. I've watched dozens of episodes of this and Two and a Half Men because of my roommates GF and all they do is cater. I get the obscure comic book and old tv or science references(way more than she does), they just aren't lol funny.

Replace Seinfeld with Frasier and I agree.

 

[Deckard]

Frasier is solid. When I actually finally watched all of them back to back, I did find that he became very hard to like in the 11th season because he sort of became a parody of himself and was too much of an unaware twit, but he'd also been on the air for like what? 40 years with Cheers included at that point? He had a good run.

 

[Collectorcol]

Love TBBT but not a Star Wars fan...

I know, I know!

 

[GasparZizou]

Taking risks, doing subjects that haven't been done. George Carlin's words you can't say on tv. etc.

Louie takes risks. Like when he did an episode where he went to Iraq to perform stand up for the troops there. You'll never see an episode of a comedy like that so much so that it got national attention. I don't mean that he endangered his life mind you. I mean that he did a show on a subject that most consider sort of taboo and wouldn't be a guarenteed success episode with a sitcom formula. Community even takes risks when they do things like a zombie episode.

Modern Family can't push the boundries of comedy because they have to appeal to old people, kids, and folks who generally just want light and non offensice ABC Disney entertainment and stumbled into a time slot after watching Dancing with Whatever. So you just end up with repacked stories that have been done a hundred times already. Watered down, not funny imo.

Modern family also has a gay couple who adopted a baby from Vietnam, and that old guy is married to a Colombian woman and adopted his son, they crack jokes about ethnicity without being offensive in the slightest and all of their shows topics I haven't seen in any other show.

Yet you have shows like Family Guy who do nothing but to "take risks" and end up being formulaic and dull, lowering the bar (South Park reference)

Offensive and those sorts of risks are not always comedy and it should not be a mean of measuring comedy.

Monty Python for example, they're old as **** and yet they still funnier than most of the "edgy" shows today.

 

[Deckard]

I didn't say South Park. There's a difference between offensive comedy and taking a risk. You'll notice I never mentioned Family Guy.

Nothing is edgy about the gay couple and adopting a baby(except to the ABC audience), it's been done in sitcoms for the past 15 years at least. (Arrested Development) and I'm sure before that.

Veep took a risk. Augmented reality version of current politics with fake politicians as a comedy. That's a concept that's never been proven successful before they did it and made it funny.

 

[GasparZizou]

I didn't say South Park. There's a difference between offensive comedy and taking a risk. You'll notice I never mentioned Family Guy.

Nothing is edgy about the gay couple and adopting a baby(except to the ABC audience), it's been done in sitcoms for the past 15 years at least. (Arrested Development) and I'm sure before that.

Veep took a risk. Augmented reality version of current politics with fake politicians as a comedy. That's a concept that's never been proven successful before they did it and made it funny.

Gay couple with adopted kid as main characters? Who also are about to get married.

Anyway, my point is that comedy is not subject to taking risks.

 

[Deckard]

Gay couple with adopted kid as main characters? Who also are about to get married.

Anyway, my point is that comedy is not subject to taking risks.

Yea, you should watch Arrested Development. It's the original MF. Gay couples aren't edgy man, it's 2014. Now making a straight character so socially inept and pyschotic he mistakes his first ever actual male friendship for him maybe being gay? That's a funny way to take on the issue and what AD did with Season 4. They already did the marriage adoption thing in season 1 in like 2000.

Comedy is absolutely about taking risks. That's the entire point. Pushing the boundries of what's funny and acceptable until it becomes such.

It's exactly why I mentioned George Carlin's words you can't say on tv. Today most of them are acceptable.

 

[GasparZizou]

Yea, you should watch Arrested Development. It's the original MF. Gay couples aren't edgy man, it's 2014. Now making a straight character so socially inept and pyschotic he mistakes his first ever actual male friendship for him maybe being gay? That's a funny way to take on the issue and what AD did with Season 4. They already did the marriage adoption thing in season 1 in like 2000.

Comedy is absolutely about taking risks. That's the entire point. Pushing the boundries of what's funny and acceptable until it becomes such.

It's exactly why I mentioned George Carlin's words you can't say on tv. Today most of them are acceptable.

Mhm well I usually see gay characters in comedies as flashy caricatures, never portrayed in a real way, haven't see AD though, still, not many shows do that.

Not always, pushing the boundaries can lead to lowering the bar sometimes, and that's not comedy, comedy can also rely on well written intelligent jokes or situation, not every joke or every awkward situation has to push boundaries.

 

[Deckard]

haven't see AD though,

Check out AD. You'll realize MF is a knock-off doing things they did a decade ago.

https://www.imdb.com/search/title?g...0,&sort=user_rating,desc&title_type=tv_series

They are able to set up jokes in s.1 that don't pay off until s.3. Tons of things you won't understand until you rewatch a season. It's pure genius.

 

[GasparZizou]

I've heard good things about it, I'll give it a watch when spring break comes wooohoo

Idk about knock offs, MF portrays gay couples as regular folks and Latinos.... well, Latinos are still a caricature there but Sofia Vergara is hilarious....

 

[Deckard]

Well, I've seen both, no offence, but it's tough to converse about points like that with someone who hasn't.
https://www.google.com/search?q=mod...j8&sourceid=chrome&espv=210&es_sm=93&ie=UTF-8 You can see alot of people have drawn the comparison and AD fairs well.

But yea, check it out whenever you can, you won't regret it.

 

[SnakeDoctor]

I've heard good things about it, I'll give it a watch when spring break comes wooohoo

Idk about knock offs, MF portrays gay couples as regular folks and Latinos.... well, Latinos are still a caricature there but Sofia Vergara is hilarious....

I must be the only man on the planet that finds Sofia Vergara intolerably irritating.

There was an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond where Robert's very pretty fling from Italy -- Stefania -- moves to New York to rekindle things. He tolerates her for about a week before he has to drop her because she's annoying enough to overcome her looks. Sofia Vergara reminds me of that girl.

Laugh tracks in comedies aren't new. They've been doing that since the 80s.

This is by far my favorite sitcom on TV right now.

I like TBBT, but I'll take Parks and Recreation easily. Also been watching Surviving Jack the last couple of weeks. Christopher Meloni. Surprisingly funny.

SnakeDoc

 

[DFanatic]

TBBT doesn't even use laugh tracks.... it's filmed in front of a live studio audience.