7d ago

I came to share an incident. I put on old- school "Scooby Doo, Where Are You?" for my 7 year old son. He's like, "I don't like those people yelling in the background." Laugh Track

So I guess laugh tracks are expired. Also, Shaggy "threw his voice," making it sound like it was coming from another room. We used to believe in this, and quicksand.

33 comments

"people yelling in the background" is such an interesting way to hear a laugh track described.
I stuggled to get my son to watch any older cartoons as well. The only one he liked was Tom and Jerry
- One of my absolutely favorite things is a copy of MASH someone released that had the laugh track left out.
  The show is so much better for it. I wish this was more of a thing.
  
  This sounds amazing
  
  Aren't the gaps in dialogue way too long though? Or did MASH do okay with that
  
  I have the Martinis and Medicine collection and you have the option to completely turn off the laugh track.
  Now, no laugh track for the show except for the ER would be a fun thing to see
- He's enjoying it and laughing, but strangely he laughs at things the laugh track isn't emphasizing
  
  Depending on age that’s normal, basically whenever they see something they have never seen their brain has to decide if thats just a normal weird thing, or an impossible funny thing.
  Old cartoons are full of both. Imagine a phone, but it has a string like cable attached to it. Hillarious!
- To be fair, the older a cartoon is the more it was written for adults.

It does get kind of intense with Scooby Doo, especially in the old ones where the audience was drunk and screaming "fuck yeah! get his ass! kill him!".
- Please elaborate, I don't remeber this wtf
  
  They dubbed over it on the VHS/DVD releases. If you watch the originals they get wild. Slurs even.

Why were we so worried about quicksand?
- And piranhas. It was the cartoons
- Quicksand is still a danger, even if it doesn't work as some people might imagine.
  
  elabo pls

Good choice though on you. Something I always loved about Scooby Doo is how every monster just turns out to be some industrialist, land speculator, real estate ghoul, or in almost every case some sort of capitalist tricking people to be afraid of a fabricated threat to further exploit people.
It's basically low key a great introduction to anti-capitalist concepts.

Tell him they're ghosts, and the whole joke is that Mystery Inc. keeps finding random guys dressed as ghosts and somehow don't notice all the ghosts yelling right there

I can't stand laugh tracks anymore. Which sucks because I loved that 70s show but can't watch it because it has a laugh track. Also home improvement and others that I'm forgetting.
- Both examples were filmed in front of an actual live audience, tho. In those cases, it's not a laugh track; it's an actual audience behind the 4th wall.
  
  Doesn't mean that's authentic. What is cue cards?

I hated laugh tracks back when they were still popular. Unless it's an ironic laugh track.

The bit about throwing one's voice was often used when I was younger as a possible explanation for mystics inviting spirits into the room. So that's not actually a thing?
- The way it's depicted in cartoons is not a thing, but Ventriloquism is definitely a thing. Turns out it's mostly about making people look somewhere else while you talk (such as at your puppet) which creates an auditory illusion.
  
  My baby nephew is very good at making crying sounds without moving his lips
  
  TIL people experience this. I thought it was just something those with spatial deafness experience. I never have interpreted a sound as coming from something just because it looked like it was moving or talking.

33 comments