canned laughter

canned laughter

Recorded laughter that is commonly played during a TV show's humorous moments, as to encourage the audience to laugh as well. Of course that corny show uses canned laughter to try to convince us that it’s funny.
See also: canned, laughter
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

canned laughter

Also, canned music. Prerecorded sound effects that can be played repeatedly, as in That canned laughter doesn't make his jokes any funnier, or Canned music is greatly reducing the number of musical jobs available. O. Henry had the term in his story, Cabbages and Kings (1903): "We'll export canned music to the Latins." Canned laughter today is often used in broadcasting to simulate the reaction of a nonexistent live audience. [c. 1900]
See also: canned, laughter
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
See also:
  • get off a few good ones
  • tie (something) up in a neat little bow
  • from a mile away
  • (Don't ask me,) I just work here.
  • (Don't ask me,) I only work here.
  • you must be tired, because you've been running through my mind all day
  • I could tell you but then I’d have to kill you
  • I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you
  • me three
  • corny
References in periodicals archive
He didn't know if the BBC Scotland soap would wait until he finished Canned Laughter.
Neither was there taunting with canned laughter. What a relief!
Such compelling evidence became the foundation for the use of "canned laughter," using it to try and capitalize on the social nature of laughter to entice the audience to laugh (Cialdini, 1993).
More important, canned laughter increased viewer enjoyment.
Like canned laughter, this evening of Laurie "lite" seemed thin.
CANNED LAUGHTER by Peter Hay (Oxford University Press, 262 p.) is an amusing, well-written and sometimes even enlightening collection of quips, bon mots and anecdotes about famous people (mostly performers and newsmen) in the entertainment business.
Cleese in The Sunset The lack of a canned laughter track leads me to believe its writer Charles McKeown - responsible for penning the darkly comic Brazil for Python acolyte Terry Gilliam - never intended the series as superannuated succour for those missing Last of The Summer Wine.
After last week, many viewers tried to throw themselves under one Producers have been accused of using canned laughter after scripted jokes flopped with the studio audience.
They are finding time to work on a new play, Canned Laughter, which they are bringing to stages throughout Scotland in March next year.
And it can feel a bit like we are harking back to the 70s with the cliched jokes and canned laughter.
PRIZED Apart's entirely unnecessary canned laughter.
Instead you get forced drama, forced emotion, forced banter, forced canned laughter and forced Indiana Jones music.
And, as for the absence of a deafening canned laughter track - an almost mandatory feature on lame ducks like this - I can only posit one suggestion.
While the joke elicited a smattering of canned laughter when the episode aired on Feb.
IN this age of sitcoms and over-scripted panel shows stacked with lamentably obvious gags and iced off with a dose of canned laughter, it's all too easy for stand-up to follow suit.