I think my wife and I are both deaf. A friend from California visited us in November. We watched a US sitcom. It had a laugh track. Laurie pointed this out to us. We didn't really hear laugh tracks before-on any shows-or, rather, maybe we did but they didn't penetrate our brains. Now that Laurie has pointed them out on one show, we hear them on every show that has one. And it has almost ruined TV for us. They're fucking annoying. Are we the only ones who've spent 36 years on this planet and not really noticed? Tell me we're not alone!

And what's the point of 'em? To tell us when to laugh? We'll laugh if and when it's funny. We're not total fucking muppets.

And dime, I see you're online, so no fucking smart arse comments from ye!

Holy shit, really?!

no i agree, theyre terrible.

i fuckin adore big bang theory but they were guilty of this for far too long.

I am obviously used to them but it's weird to watch something like Curb Your Enthusiasm and then watch Seinfeld and hear the laugh track, so I see what you're saying.

Dime, Big Bang Theory is what we were watching with Laurie when this was pointed out to us.

Orpheus, I used to love Seinfeld. Haven't seen it in years. Now you've reminded me it has a laugh track, it may too be ruined for me. Damnit!

Some laugh tracks are worse than others. I can definitely look past it, but a laugh track is definitely a negative point.
What I really hate is when shows pretend that laugh tracks are different from laughs made by a 'live studio audience.' Big Bang has explicitly pointed out that their laugh track is from a live studio audience, and Whitney prominently features the same claim in their intro, as if that is supposed to make it better.
The point of a laugh track is to tell us when to laugh and often to simply trick us into thinking a joke or a show is funnier than it it is. Where the laugh originated really doesn't matter at all. That annoys me.
It's like they're trying to trick us into not thinking that they're trying to trick us into laughing.

Don't they say filmed in front of a live studio audience? That doesn't mean an additional laugh track is not added later on.

I've gotten so used to show without the laugh track that when I hear one it's really jarring. Having said that, I didn't notice until almost the end of season one that How I Met Your Mother has one. I think if it's well done, and if the show is funny enough that you are actually laughing along with it, you don't really notice the track.

But on a show like Whitney, it grates like a rake freshly washed window. That show has the worst laugh track I've ever heard.

I'm not really a laugh out loud kind of guy so laugh tracks are very jarring to me. I didn't even realize it until someone pointed it out, but I don't watch any comedies with a laugh track.

I feel like they are becoming less and less common. The only one I watch anymore is How I Met Your Mother. And, of course, reruns of older shows. But as far as "new" or current programming, HIMYM is the only one.

That's true. They're really only on network sitcoms, except for NBC shows. I feel that shows like The Office proved it could be done for a mainstream show.

The best were laugh tracks on cartoons (see Hanna Barbera).

I hate to say it, but no one watched Arrested Development when it was on the air.

I did

I don't watch anything presently that has one. If I happen to catch a few minutes of Seinfeld, it bothers me. If I decided to watch Home Improvement or Full House, it probably wouldn't bother me as much. Probably just depends on the show, but I can almost guarantee it would make shows like How I Met Your Mother or The Big Bang Theory even more annoying for me.

I saw around 3-4 minutes of an episode on air.

How can anyone just not notice a laugh track? Do you hear sporadic outbursts of laughter in your everyday life? Do invisible people applaud loudly when your zany neighbor stops by for a visit?

That’s a good question. I’m going to start paying attention to that now.

That's my problem. I always notice it.