Are laugh tracks recorded in different languages?
I’ve lived in Eastern Europe for 13 years. Laughter sounds the same here as at home. On the other hand, people don’t always laugh at the same jokes, sometimes because they don’t get them in a different culture, often because the corniest old chestnuts you ever heard in America are brand new (and therefore funny) here. I don’t watch much TV but can’t remember ever hearing a laugh track on one of their programs. Mostly we get imports with the sound track turned down and a translation dubbed over it–and some jokes simply can’t be translated so a laugh track wouldn’t make sense. Other times, things that we don’t think are jokes strike foreigners funny–what’s funny about the Red Sox and White Sox? But Japanese think those names are laughable. If we’re really lucky they’ll turn the sound track off entirely (it costs more to do it that way) and all you’ll hear is the translation. It was a real hoot hearing a French soprano do Dolly Parton without hearing a hint of her hillbilly drawl. Rhyth
