Canned laughter / TV laugh track

As told 12

“Canned laughter.”
Slavoj Žižek interview on NiteBeat2008-06-25 · 05:36

“you hear the laughter and you just look at it and... as an idiot and when it ends, you feel relieved. it is as if you have laughed.”
43:56 Why Only an Atheist Can Believe2006-11-10 · 1:59:32

“you don't even have to laugh you look at it the screen laughs for you and it works...after watching a comical series I feel relaxed as if I laughed”
1:39:06 Perfil Interview2018-09-09 · 2:59:07

What it carries

one story, many jobs: the ideas this anecdote is deployed to argue, one tally mark per use (an idea page shows the same relation from the other end, as its shelf of stories)

contents · one story, 5 jobsuses

subject supposed to believe ×7 interpassivity ×5 cynical reason ×3 subjective vs. objective belief ×2 ideological cynicism ×2

Its cast and sources

populated by

Ágnes Heller3 Graham Greene2 Paul Veyne3 Colin Powell2 Donald Davidson2 Bernard Madoff2 Lee Kuan Yew3 Jean-Jacques Rousseau3

alongside works

Leap of Faith3 Did the Ancient Greeks Believe in Their Myths?3 The Age of Innocence3 The Fragile Absolute3 Sand Castles: Buddhism and Global Finance2 Kierkegaard and Humor (edited volume)2 Friends2 History of Madness2

Told together with

20% Tibetan prayer wheel 3 shared talks 19% Niels Bohr's horseshoe 10 shared talks 18% chocolate laxative 3 shared talks 15% Jackson Pollock cigarette retouch 2 shared talks 14% Afghanistan: from secular to fundamentalist 3 shared talks 14% Leap of Faith (Steve Martin) 2 shared talks 14% Santa Claus Belief 4 shared talks 13% Turin Shroud and fundamentalist DNA 2 shared talks 11% Brazil restaurant scene 2 shared talks 11% man who believes he is a grain of corn / the chicken 2 shared talks 11% Yugoslav dirty jokes as solidarity / moment of loss was civil war 2 shared talks 9% Lenin's Wife and Mistress 2 shared talks

Every retelling 13

Slavoj Žižek interview on NiteBeat2008-06-25 · 05:36

Mentioned as another example of passive consumption and the removal of substance (laughter without the joke/comedy)., illustrating X without Y

43:56 Why Only an Atheist Can Believe2006-11-10 · 1:59:32

You return home tired, switch on Friends, you don't actually laugh but the laugh track laughs for you and you feel relieved as if you had. Even the most intimate expression (laughter) can be transposed onto an external machine., illustrating big Other,subjective vs. objective belief,belief without belief

1:39:06 Perfil Interview2018-09-09 · 2:59:07

TV comedy shows have a laugh track that laughs for you; you feel relaxed afterward as if you had laughed yourself. Paradigm of how in the cynical era you can outsource emotions, beliefs, and enjoyment to an external medium., illustrating cynical ideology,canned laughter,interpassivity,belief without belief

~0:00 What is to be done for politics?2012-06-27 · 1:24:25

American TV sitcoms include a laugh track so that the TV laughs for you when you are too tired; after watching, you feel relieved as if you had laughed yourself. This illustrates how emotional functions, and beliefs, can be outsourced to an external mechanism., illustrating subject supposed to believe,materiality of belief,ideology

5:37 Is there a Post-Human God?2017-03-02 · 1:47:36

You return home exhausted, watch a sitcom, and the TV laughs for you literally; you end up relaxed as if you had laughed, even though you just stared like an idiot. This is interpassivity: enjoyment outsourced to an external mechanism., illustrating interpassivity,cynical ideology

54:52 Versus Cornel West2005-11-10 · 2:18:10

The TV laughs for you; when the show ends you are relieved as if you laughed, even though you only stared. Illustrates how an external machine can perform emotional/subjective functions on our behalf., illustrating objectified belief,de-centered belief