FUNNIER JOKES
Add a laugh, raise the rating
In a 2019 study, groan-worthy dad jokes were rated funnier with laughter added, and funniest of all with spontaneous rather than posed laughs.
Pick a laughWHAT THE RESEARCH SAYS
The laugh
makes the joke.
A laugh track is the oldest sound effect in comedy.
Pick a laugh
REAL LAUGHSwork best
- Laughter is contagious
- Real beats acted
- Even on a recording
- Why comedy comes with a crowd
Recorded laughter was first added to radio and TV to tell audiences a show was meant to be funny and to make them feel part of a crowd. Laboratory studies now show it does more than that: hearing others laugh changes how funny a joke seems.
Updated
THE SHORT ANSWER
Laughter is
catching, even canned.
Three findings from studies of jokes,
laughter and contagion.
WHY TRACKS EXIST
Telling you it is funny
Recorded laughter, live or prerecorded, was introduced to show radio and TV audiences that shows were meant to be humorous and to help them feel part of an audience.
Why it works
CONTAGION
A recording is enough
Researchers note that people will laugh at recorded laughter. In one lab study, heard laughter drew more contagious responses than yawning, mostly smiles.
See the numbersA QUICK LAUGH CHECK
What kind of laugh
comes with the joke?
Pick a laugh to see what the research found about its effect. The bar shows how much it is likely to lift a joke or a listener.
Based on Cai and colleagues (2019), De Weck and colleagues (2022) and Billing and colleagues (2021).
TWO NUMBERS WORTH KNOWING
One study,
one old rule.
The size of the dad-joke study,
and what a laugh does to someone alone.
72
Adults who rated jokes with laughter added
48 neurotypical and 24 autistic adults heard spoken dad jokes read by a professional comedian, each paired with a short spontaneous or posed laugh. Both groups rated jokes funnier with spontaneous laughs.
THE STUDY · CAI 2019
16 of 21
Adults who smiled or laughed at recorded laughter with no one else present
Only two of the 21 laughed out loud; most responses were smiles or grins. Laughter was more contagious through sound than through video alone, and less contagious as the session went on.
ALONE IN A LAB · DE WECK 2022
A 2021 brain-imaging study found that differences in how the brain responded to spontaneous and deliberate laughter could predict how contagious a person found the laughter to be.
WHY CANNED LAUGHTER WORKS
Your brain
joins the crowd.
The studies point to a few reasons a laugh track can change how a show feels, even when you know it is recorded.
Laughter is a social signal
Most laughter happens in company, and hearing it tells us a moment is meant to be funny.
It is processed implicitly
In the 2019 study the laughter was irrelevant to the task, yet it still changed people's ratings.
Real laughs carry more
Spontaneous laughter boosted jokes more than posed laughter, so the kind of laugh matters.
Sound alone can do it
In the 2022 lab study, laughter was more contagious through sound alone than through video alone.
WHERE LAUGH TRACKS CAME FROM
A crowd
in the speaker.
Cai and colleagues note that filmed comedy is often broadcast with a recorded laughter track, frequently recorded from the studio audience. Recorded laughter was first introduced to show radio and TV audiences that a programme was meant to be funny.
It also helped people at home feel part of an audience. The 2019 results suggest the effect is real: even a fairly dire joke can seem funnier when other people are heard laughing at it.
Questions
Questions people ask
Do laugh tracks make jokes funnier?
In a 2019 study led by researchers at UCL, adding laughter to spoken dad jokes raised how funny people rated them, compared with a group who heard the jokes without laughter.
Does it matter if the laughter is fake?
Yes. Jokes paired with spontaneous laughter were rated funnier than jokes paired with posed laughter.
Why were laugh tracks added to TV in the first place?
Recorded laughter was introduced to show radio and TV audiences that shows were meant to be humorous and to help them feel part of an audience.
Can a recording really make me laugh?
Researchers note that people will laugh if they hear recorded laughter. In one lab study with no one else present, the responses were mostly smiles rather than full laughter.
Did autistic participants respond differently?
No difference was found in how the type of laughter affected ratings. Autistic participants rated all the jokes as somewhat funnier overall.
Where the facts come from
- Cai, Chen, White and Scott (2019), Modulation of humor ratings of bad jokes by other people's laughter, Current Biology (PMC)
- Scott, Cai and Billing (2022), Robert Provine: the critical human importance of laughter, connections and contagion, Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B (PMC)
- De Weck and colleagues (2022), Hearing someone laugh and seeing someone yawn, Frontiers in Psychology (PMC)
- Billing, Cooper and Scott (2021), Pre-SMA activation and the perception of contagiousness and authenticity in laughter sounds, Cortex (abstract, Europe PMC)