Maddie Cornetta – Laughter as a Group Activity and Talk Show Audiences

I was really intrigued by Bergson’s observation of laughter as a group activity – that laughter can only thrive in an environment in which it can reverberate from one person to another in an echo of which no one can pinpoint the origin. And it reminded me of an experience that I had at the beginning of the pandemic.

I used to be an avid fan of the Daily Show on Comedy Central, and I always assumed I had subscribed to the show because of the content. While still educational, there were other programs that I found I preferred once the show employed its COVID-19 safety regulations and removed the live audience from show tapings. For some reason, I didn’t enjoy the show as much – not because the content or style had changed but because what I enjoyed most about that specific talk show was getting to laugh with other people, or at the least feel like I was in a group. Bergson’s argument that humans laugh because they feel included in the group that is experiencing the joke reminds me of that experience. A lot of times, jokes don’t “hit” and audiences can tell that there was meant to be a reaction. In these instances, there is an evident pause in dialogue followed by silence – a silence that discourages interruption and therefore laughter. The show suffered from the absence of a live audience because viewers were dependent upon that laughter in order to feel comfortable joining in.

One show that continued to thrive despite the absence of a live audience was Last Week Tonight with John Oliver because the absence of audible laughter was addressed and the emptiness of the set became its own running gag. Once agin, Bergson’s observations of the comic come into play in this case study: that the comic can’t exist outside the pale of something strictly human. Last Week Tonight had no audience and was filmed in what the host fondly deemed “the void”. So, the void was given human shape. It was given a cartoony face and was voiced by H. John Benjamin.

Even when the face was not present, the show had already established something inherently human about the environment, despite there only being one human being visible. Now, audiences watched the shown in the same capacity as the void: silent but ever-present and able to laugh along with the host in the comfort of their own homes.