About

Inappropriate Laugh Track refers to a series of remix videos in which emotional or dramatic scenes from films and TV shows are paired with a laugh track for humorous effect, similar to the use of inappropriate soundtracks.

Origin

On October 17th, 2006, YouTuber linguica uploaded an interview with political commentator Bill O'Reilly on the American news channel Fox News (shown below, left) and a scene from the HBO crime drama series The Wire with laughs tracks edited into the background audio. In the first seven years, the videos received over 150,000 and 450,000 views respectively.

Spread

On November 18th, 2007, YouTuber ParodyPlace uploaded a clip from the 1980 horror film The Shining with laughter edited into the audio track (shown below). On January 25th, 2008, YouTuber senorgumshoe published a video titled "To Catch a Laugh Track," featuring scenes from the television reality show To Catch a Predator with canned laughter added in (shown below).

On December 4th, YouTuber yootoobmember uploaded two scenes from the 1990 horror film Misery with a laugh track edited into two of the film's famous dramatic scenes (shown below).

On April 9th, 2009, YouTuber NirvanaPictures uploaded a clip from the 2008 Batman action film The Dark Knight with laughter audio edited in (shown below, left). On February 5th, 2010, youtoobmember uploaded clips from The Shining with the addition a laugh track and the theme song from the television sitcom Seinfeld (shown below, right). In the first four years, the video gained over 380,000 views and 690 comments.

On May 12th, YouTuber kwalitykontrol uploaded clips from the television drama series Breaking Bad edited to resemble a sitcom with a modified opening sequence and added laughter (shown below, left), which accumulated more than 840,000 views and 1,200 comments in the following three years. On March 21st, 2011, YouTuber MrRagdoller published a video featuring a laugh track added to a scene from the 1985 drama film Mask (shown below, right).

On January 14th, 2012, YouTuber HoneydewWilkins uploaded several clips from the 1990s television sitcom Saved By the Bell with audience howls added to the background audio track (shown below, left). Within two years, the video received over 614,000 views and 470 comments. On April 16th, 2013, YouTuber josepi1984 uploaded scenes from the sitcoms Family Matters and Full House with inappropriate laugh tracks added (shown below, right). In the first six months, the video garnered upwards of 340,000 views and 170 comments.

Notable Examples

Derivative

On January 2nd, 2012, YouTuber sboss uploaded a scene from the television sitcom The Big Bang Theory with the laugh track removed from the background audio (shown below). In the next two years, the video received over 625,000 views and 2,400 comments.

Search Interest