The Laff Box
99% Invisible1 Maj 2018

The Laff Box

For nearly five decades, the laugh track was ubiquitous on television sitcoms, but in the early 2000s, it began to disappear. What happened? How did we get from the raucous canned laughter of the Beverly Hillbillies to the silent, sly “joke every 20 seconds” of 30 Rock? The curious story of the laugh track starts with one man who created the laugh track as a homemade piece of technology that took over the sound of television and then fell out of fashion with the rise of a more modern sense of humor. What happened to the laugh track is one of the cultural mysteries that are being explored on Slate’s new monthly podcast: Decoder Ring with Willa Paskin

The Laff Box

Plus, Roman talks to The West Wing Weekly co-host Joshua Malina about his time acting on Sports Night, which was a turning point in the history of the television laugh track.

Learn more and subscribe to Decoder Ring

Subscribe to The West Wing Weekly

Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of 99% Invisible ad-free and a whole week early.

Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus.


Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Avsnitt(773)

Another Visit from the Three Santas of Slovenia

Another Visit from the Three Santas of Slovenia

We're revisiting this Christmas classic from 2021. Happy Holidays!Slovenia is a small country in Central Europe nestled between Italy, Austria, Croatia and Hungary. It's a land of snowy white peaks, g...

26 Dec 202338min

Mini-Stories: Volume 17

Mini-Stories: Volume 17

It's the most wonderful time of the year. It's mini-stories season! Gather the kids around the fire because We have a year-end mix of short stories about a rogue architect, spooky kitchens, a hundred ...

20 Dec 202348min

Empire of the Sum

Empire of the Sum

Keeping track of numbers has always been part of what makes us human. So at some point along the way, we created a tool to help us keep count, and then we gave that tool a name. We called it: a calcul...

13 Dec 202333min

Breaking Down The Power Broker (with Conan O'Brien)

Breaking Down The Power Broker (with Conan O'Brien)

Today's episode features #1 Robert Caro superfan, Conan O'Brien.The Power Broker by Robert Caro is a biography of Robert Moses, who is said to have built more structures and moved more earth than anyo...

5 Dec 202344min

The Known Unknown [rebroadcast]

The Known Unknown [rebroadcast]

Roman note: This is one of my favorite episodes of all time. Should be a movie. Enjoy!The tradition of the Tomb of the Unknowns goes back only about a century, but it has become one of the most solemn...

29 Nov 202345min

Long Strange Tape

Long Strange Tape

The Cassette tape was great in so many ways, but let’s be honest, they never really sounded great.  But because the cassette was so much cheaper and easier to use and portable, a lot of people didn't ...

22 Nov 202334min

Home on the Range

Home on the Range

In a lot of ways, Lincoln Heights, Ohio, sounds just like any other suburb. If you walk around town, you’ll hear kids playing outside the local elementary school. You’ll hear the highway that takes co...

15 Nov 202339min

The Six-Week Cure

The Six-Week Cure

In the mid-1900s, people flocked to Reno, Nevada -- not for frontier gold or loose slots, but to get out of bad marriages.  The city became known as the "Divorce Capital of the World." For much of mod...

7 Nov 202334min

Populärt inom Business & ekonomi

badfluence
framgangspodden
varvet
rss-jossan-nina
rss-borsens-finest
uppgang-och-fall
avanzapodden
svd-tech-brief
bathina-en-podcast
fill-or-kill
lastbilspodden
rss-kort-lang-analyspodden-fran-di
borsmorgon
kapitalet-en-podd-om-ekonomi
rikatillsammans-om-privatekonomi-rikedom-i-livet
tabberaset
rss-den-nya-ekonomin
dynastin
rss-inga-dumma-fragor-om-pengar
rss-veckans-trade