canned laughter

Idioms  

1. Also, canned music. Prerecorded sound effects that can be played repeatedly, as in That canned laughter doesn't make his jokes any funnier, or Canned music is greatly reducing the number of musical jobs available. O. Henry had the term in his story, Cabbages and Kings (1903): “We'll export canned music to the Latins.” Canned laughter today is often used in broadcasting to simulate the reaction of a nonexistent live audience. [c. 1900]

---

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

canned laughter

"All the footage was covered in Japanese graphics, it's got Japanese narration, canned laughter, sound effects, it's a cacophony of noise and graphics," she explains.

From BBC ● Jun. 14, 2024

Kimmel has replaced his live audience with canned laughter that sparkles forth in all the right spots.

From Salon ● Mar. 28, 2021

If it wasn’t canned laughter and there was a real audience, then they must have had a copy of the script.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2017

Let no one confuse it with a show using canned laughter, even though for people watching from home, there is no meaningful distinction between canned laughter and the manipulated, required laughter of a studio audience.

From Slate ● Oct. 3, 2014

Some extremely advanced paranoiacs can’t even watch television because they think the canned laughter is about them.

From "The Pigman" by Paul Zindel