A TikTok Account 'Ruins' The Office By Adding One Extra Thing

For decades, the American sitcom was punctuated with the laughing and hollering of a live studio audience. A laugh track was like a cue for anyone watching at home that a character just made a joke, and it was okay to laugh. This also resulted in the actors mulling about awkwardly until the laughing ceased. But it seems like a relic for anyone watching one of these shows today.

Sitcoms have mostly evolved past the need for a laugh track to the point where adding one would actually make a series less funny. That's the case for "The Office," as demonstrated by TikToker Ruining Media. They live up to their name by adding audience laughter to scenes from "The Office." This includes one of the most memorable moments from the show when Dwight (Rainn Wilson) pulls out his stapler encased in Jell-O.

There's little doubt such a moment would result in laughter from an audience, but the laugh track does take away something from the moment. Part of the appeal of "The Office" and modern shows like it is that the silence and awkwardness exhibited by the characters can make a moment funnier than any canned laughing. 

Laugh tracks were all over the place in comedies for years, including animated shows like "The Flintstones." However, it was slowly phased out as comedy became more complex. Older sitcoms tend to follow traditional formulas where a character sets up something while another character delivers a punchline. This leads to the audience laughing so that the structure can repeat itself. But shows like "The Simpsons" and "Malcolm in the Middle" developed more complex comedic rhythms where laughing would get in the way of another joke. 

Laugh tracks especially don't work with cringe comedies that "The Office" helped usher in. The characters not knowing how to react to something provides an extra layer of humor. Imagine watching "Scott's Tots" with random people laughing as Michael Scott (Steve Carell) has to tell a classroom of students he can't pay for their college tuition. The appeal comes from Michael not knowing how to react, causing audiences at home to cringe alongside him. But if there was a studio audience laughing, viewers may think they should laugh, too, stripping the episode of its power.

For this reason, many sitcoms have avoided using laugh tracks in recent years, which is all right with fans. Numerous comments under the TikTok rejoice over the fall of the laugh track, like one user writing, "I actually couldn't get into a few shows due to studio audience/laugh tracks. It's like nails on a chalkboard to me." It's high praise for a show to be so funny a laugh track actually ruins it. Unfortunately, taking the laugh track out of something like "The Big Bang Theory" diminishes the jokes.