Quick rule of thumb: If a show features a laugh track, turn it off and save your gray matter. With few execeptions, it's another mind-numbing sitcom. Alternatively, you can laugh boisterously along with the laugh track; and as it tends to play every 5 or so seconds, this tactic can quickly force others to surrender control of the television. This tactic also illuminates how inane the laugh track concept really is. Try it some time.

If it weren't for canned laughter, people would see just how stupid situation comedies really are. It is really a sad commentary on our culture when the herd mentality is so pervasive that it impedes our ability to judge content. Instead of deciding to laugh for ourselves, we allow the little people inside the television to guide our amusement.

It's really frightening to think about. The large corporate media conglomerates can get most of us to sit night after night in our homes for four hours (what the average American watches) laughing at things that we wouldn't find funny unless they told us to laugh. It makes you wonder what else they can get us to do.

Please do not vote this down because you like Third Rock from The Sun or something like that and don't like the idea of someone telling you when to laugh. I like Seinfeld, I am not holier than thou, I'm just saying.