There are some innovations on television that have overstayed their welcome by a long shot and need to go away. I was reminded of one of these innovations recently when I read a harsh critique of the new Zoey Deschanel sitcom, New Girl. One of the reasons the author gave to hate the show was the lack of a laugh track in the show.
I attended a taping of The Colbert Report recently and had an excellent time. There was one aspect of the experience that bothered me just a little and I felt that I needed to report about it here. You may be wondering what could have possibly gone wrong in an experience where I got completely free tickets to see one of the funniest political comedians do his show in front of an audience of maybe one hundred people, if that. It was nothing to do with the show itself but rather something that happened during the the preparation time before the show that set me off.
Can there be a deadly condition of “too much applause” that is bad for the body and damaging to the community whole? Is it more cruel to sit on your hands and withhold applause — or is it better to applaud to show support and how well mannered you are no matter who or what or why your hands are making sound against each other?
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