Yet, oddly, less painful than it is with the original laugh-track.

This show came from the evil universe and is made of anti-funny.

Is that the actor that has won three Emmys for comedic actor? When literally everyone else on Earth is funnier than him?

Ugh.

I think he's maybe meant to be a nerd Kramer? In which case, I guess I should brace for his eventual off-the-cuff racist rant in some heckler-filled standup hole.

According to Chuck Lorre Productions, there's an actual audience, and they don't use a laughtrack.

http://www.chucklorre.com/images/vc282big.jpg

Frankly, I'd still prefer to believe that's BS and they are using a laughtrack like hundreds of other sitcoms, because I refuse to believe there's an audience out there of regular Joes who would burst into irony-free laughter over "My new computer came with Windows 7!" followed by even more laughter over "It's much more user friendly than Windows Vista!"

I know some dumb, dumb people, but there is no way on god's green earth that any human being would laugh at some of the stuff that gets uproarious, sustained, inconsolable laughter on BBT.

My guess is they use one of those light-up LAUGHTER signs.

It's hard to understand a studio audience unless you've been in one.

Yeah there are signs and pages telling you when to laugh. People do it because: there's always a couple simpletons who genuinely laugh first to get the ball rolling, you feel like you'll get kicked out if you don't, and laughing at terrible humor is less painful than the awkwardness of total silence ruining a scene.

It's not so much that there's uproarious laughter greeting every line in a Chuck Lorre production, it's when you hear people amongst the laughter guffawing so hard they sound like they're about to laugh themselves into a cardiac arrest.

I'd also add that anyone attending a Big Bang production is already a fan of the show and finds the humor hilarious.

Someone pointed it out before that this would be an interesting show if Sheldon was the main character and the whole thing was a semi-serious take on an autistic man missing social cues.

Fuck though, "I won't need money unless they suddenly come out with technology that would let me become Wolverine"? Who thinks this is funny? The comic book nerd / Scary Movie crossover demographic?

some studios use/used stand-ins in the audience that laugh extra to trigger other people and to be that person on the audio that really likes the show.

also even if there's an audience, doesnt stop anyone from dubbing in a laugh track to cover flat jokes.

Some of the replies above offer insight into the Mob Mentality. Your instincts don't want you to stand up and disagree in front of a crowd.

Also into humor. If there's even one jackass braying at the bad jokes, that in itself can make something funny. The existence of this video is an example of that.

@BHWW For some reason the idea of some fat jag in the studio audience for BBT literally laughing himself to death during this sequence is an unbelievably historical to me.

All like, gettin' the call at 2am on your cell. "Joe?" "Yeah?" "It's Gill. I know we haven't talked for a long time, but... it’s Big T. He... he's dead, Joe." "Jesus." *sits up in bed* "...How?" "He... oh god... he laughed so hard at a Big Bang Theory joke about Sheldon's preference of Windows 7 over Windows Vista that he suffered a cardiac arrest."

*hysterical

meant to be in reply and meant to refer to regular audiences, not this one. but tidus is probably blazed too, wasn't wakka his connect?

also lol at that chuck lorre photo, not even a token minority! (jews and green lanterns don't count)

They pump extra oxygen in the air to prep you for the ice filled bathtub kidney harvest before the pages dump you in the parking garage with a hook on your car door.

Sin was created as an excuse to cull the most unfunny people from every new generation of Sphera.