Since The Big Bang Theory became so successful, there are many fascinating facts about the hit TV show. For example, many fans don’t know one actor played different roles on TBBT and its two spin-offs, that one of the stars was fired early on, or about the gross thing Mayim Bialik did while filming. Similarly, it is amazing to learn that Jim Parsons agreed one of the show’s scenes should be banned, that TBBT traumatized a former TV star, or that Craig Ferguson had an unofficial cameo.
While many facts about The Big Bang Theory are funny or shocking, one is likely to annpy and shock the show’s viewers. After all, Mayim Bialik once claimed that the biggest complaint about the show, that still defines how some people talk about the sitcom, was a total lie.
The Biggest Criticism About The Big Bang Theory Is The Show’s Laugh Track
While looking back at the unique history of The Big Bang Theory, it could be argued that the show’s legacy is one of the most fascinating in TV history. After all, the history of The Big Bang Theory has a lot of ups and downs.
Obviously one of the most successful sitcoms of all-time, The Big Bang Theory lasted for 12 seasons and went out on top commercially speaking. However, The Big Bang Theory has always had many detractors who have been very vocal about criticizing the show.
Unsurprisingly, there are many aspects of The Big Bang Theory that viewers have complained about. That said, the most common complaint about The Big Bang Theory has always been that the show’s laugh track is too much.
Since the most common complaint about The Big Bang Theory has been its laugh track, many people have played up the issue over the years.
If people search for The Big Bang Theory without a laugh track, there are many videos that pop up. In fact, people are so passionate about hating it that one video of The Big Bang Theory without a laugh track has more than 5,400,000 views on YouTube.
Another indication of how animated some viewers are by their hatred of The Big Bang Theory’s laugh track is a Reddit post.
In April 2022, someone on the r/bigbangtheory subreddit wrote a post about how annoying they’d come to find The Big Bang Theory’s laugh track. That post had a very telling title that expressed how annoyed the person was by the laugh track.
“Laugh Track – Wtf? How did I not notice how annoying they are earlier.”
In the body of that post, the person wrote that they were a longtime The Big Bang Theory fan. In fact, they wrote that they liked The Big Bang Theory enough to rewatch the show. However, the fan wrote that they picked up on how annoying the laugh track was when their rewatch started.
“So started rewatching the BBT, and on the pilot episode, There is more laugh tracks then actual dialog it feels like….. I never remember ever noticing it before and now its the only thing i notice. Am I the only one?”
While it may seem surprising that a fan would complain about The Big Bang Theory’s laugh track, they weren’t the only one.
In the comment section of the same post, another fan also complained that they had noticed how annoying The Big Bang Theory’s laugh track was during a rewatch.
“Yeah I was rewatching the adhesive duck deficiency episode (keep in mind this is my favourite episode) and got so frustrated at every single laughtrack, even when Raj, Howard and Leonard are just lying in the ground, before any comedy has begun, boom laughtrack.”
Mayim Bialik Claimed The Big Bang Theory’s Laugh Track Complaints Are Based On A Total Lie
In August 2015, The Big Bang Theory’s Mayim Bialik founded a website called GrokNation. In August 2015, Mayim used that website to publish an article in which she made a fascinating claim about The Big Bang Theory’s supposed laugh track.
As part of an article in which she revealed five things that fans didn’t know about The Big Bang Theory, Mayim wrote about the show’s laughter. To be more specific, Mayim wrote that The Big Bang Theory didn’t employ a laugh track at all.
“We don’t use a laugh track.”
Considering how many people have complained about The Big Bang Theory’s laugh track, that statement from Mayim is stunning.
As a prt of her GrokNation article, Mayim explicitly stated that every laugh heard during episodes of The Big Bang Theory was genuine and from the show’s studio audience. Mayim then explained that the laughs may sound artifical because they sometiimes were shortened for time.
“We don’t fake laughs. The laughs you hear are the actual laughter of our audience. Sometimes we have to cut off laughs because we sometimes give reactions or take more time to make the audience laugh with reactions, etc but those can’t stay in the episode because we have to edit it all down to 21 minutes! Thus, when you hear what sounds like cut off laughter, it’s sometimes that the track had to be truncated.”
As a part of the same part of that article, Mayim wrote that The Big Bang Theory’s co-creator Chuck Lorre was the reason no laugh track was necessary.
“Chuck Lorre is arguably the most successful producer on TV right now. He has three shows on, and every single show features Emmy nominees and winners. He knows what works in sitcom comedy. He also knows that if our studio audience doesn’t think something is funny, it’s not going to stay in the script. So if the audience doesn’t laugh, our writers change it during the taping. And we keep tweaking it until it’s right.”
