I Hate Laugh Tracks!
I hate ‘laugh tracks!
When television first entered our world, producers and telecasters were smart enough to assume we knew what was funny and what wasn’t. This will age me beyond recovery for many of you, but… Howdy Dowdy let me laugh at anything I thought was funny. And it worked. I could develop my own sense of humor and you were allowed to decide on yours.
But somewhere along the line, someone decided that we all needed help cheering or chuckling at whatever they decided was funny. And our train came off the track. But the audience should be able to enjoy the show at their own pace, without being cued when to laugh. (That was the belief of Charles Schulz, the creator of Peanut’s fame. He refused to employ a laugh track in his famous “A Charlie Brown Christmas.)
The harm this has done has been deadly to society and especially to Christians who got sucked into it. Soon, we were laughing at things not funny but profane, or were irreligious, or pushed us into sexual thinking that was fighting against what we knew inside were not to be applauded.
I don’t need anyone telling me when to laugh or cry. My emotions as God created them, along with the Spirit of God living inside me, working together, should keep me on target.
In another sense, we really don’t need shoddy or suspect character ‘influencers’ telling us who should put on a pedestal and lavished with praise and adoration. We of faith have a fistful of beautiful examples of people in God’s Word who lived life in a righteous way, and we have many living today who should be our examples.
Don’t laugh at something that isn’t funny to you and don’t idolize someone whose life reflects the sins that Jesus died to save us from.
“The godly people in the land
are my true heroes!
I take pleasure in them!”
Psalm 16:3 NLT
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