laugh tracks..hmm

This was probably one of my favorite articles this year. Laugh tracks is one of those things that I am exposed to nearly everyday and never even noticed they were there. Now that they were brought to my attention I don't know what to think. Hollywood is great but fake, we all know that what we see on T.V. most of the time is fake so I'm not too surprised that laugh tracks are used. The author of this article is so against them but I don't quite understand why. People who are producing these T.V. shows are out to make money just like most people are and when people find things funny they tend to like them more; the more people find their T.V. show funny the better the ratings and more money. I don't think laugh tracks determines for us what we find funny but maybe pushes us to laugh-there is nothing wrong with laughter. The best part of the article though was when he spoke about going to Germany. The more I thought about it the more I realized people in America do laugh at unecessary things but why?