[lit-ideas] Re: Laugh Tracks

Kristallnacht I think means night of the broken glass.  Crystal, kristall..  
It's like saying 9/11 has nothing to do with the emergency response number 
911.  Correct, it doesn't, but the irony of the date is I'm sure lost on no one.
 
As far as people not being prompted to laugh when they read, mostly they don't 
read.  When they do read it's of the Stephen King variety.  No need to laugh at 
that.  Comedy movies are increasingly of the Animal House, not exactly high 
brow variety.  I rent comedy DVD's with great trepidation, always prepared to 
be really disappointed, but sometimes they come through.  Those who attend 
plays might be a cut above the sheeple.  But, even places like Lincoln Center 
are dumbing down more and more to attract market share.  They're not raising 
standards to attract anyone.  
 
The bottom line is, if people didn't need to be cued, or if management didn't 
think they needed to be cued, they wouldn't be.  Why else are there laugh 
tracks?  I know in game shows they supposedly hold up signs for the audience 
that say laugh, clap, etc.  Did you ever watch the dumbest of the dumb game 
show, at least that I've seen, Deal or No Deal?  Boy is it dumb, pure emotional 
guesswork.  I'm surprised Jeopardy is still on the air.  They still attract an 
audience so maybe things aren't completely hopeless.
 


--- On Sun, 8/24/08, Robert Paul <rpaul@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

From: Robert Paul <rpaul@xxxxxxxx>
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Laugh Tracks
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Sunday, August 24, 2008, 10:39 PM

> It occurs to me that people are so led around in Bernays style 
> "Crystallizing Public Opinion" that people literally can't
be trusted 
> even to figure out what's funny.  They have to be cued to laugh with 
> laugh tracks.  BTW, the term Kristallnacht comes in part because 
> Goebbels kept the book "Crystallizing Public Opinion" on his
desk, 
> needless to say an irony (no doubt a delicious irony to Goebbels) in 
> addition to all the broken glass meaning of the word.  (Source: Human 
> Smoke, Nicholson Baker) 

There's really no reference to broken glass in the word
'Kristallnacht,' 
which literally means 'crystal night.' And the other common English 
name, 'night of [the] broken glass,' would have nothing to do with the 
verb 'to crystalize,' used in the book Goebbels is said to have kept on

his desk. (Did Goebbels really spend much time in his office?) Here, 
crystallization refers to giving a definite form or shape to, hence, 
shaping, hence, figuratively bringing together or forming public 
opinion. Nicholson Baker is trying to force a meaningful relation 
between the title of Goebbel's book, and 'broken glass.' There is
none.

On a more serious note, if people 'literally' can't be trusted (the

deceitful buggers) to recognize humor without the prompting of a laugh 
track, why should they ever laugh at movies, plays, or books?

Robert Paul

------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html

Other related posts: