Verified answer

They do perform to a live audience. It's not fake. I have been to see The Big Bang Theory once and also watched live videos on how they perform to the live audience. They add laughter to the most parts but not fake laughter. The laughter that they use are taken from previous recorded laughter from another scene.

You also tend to laugh more when you watch the show live instead of television. It turns out to be funnier from the outtakes of the show too.

Its not "bullshittery" and the laughs are legitimate although some of it is edited but the laughter is not fake just copied from another scene.

I know it's annoying. The at home television audience got used to hearing audience laughter from when early television (and radio) shows were live. The laughter was added in to give the shows the same pacing that audiences had come to expect. "Canned laughter" or "laugh tracks" were used in early TV comedy when no audience was there when the show was filmed.The theory is that it also gives the at home audience time to laugh without missing the next line of dialog.

In the early 70s laugh tracks fell out of favor. Just because the audience laughter is recorded before a live audience does not mean that the laughter is representative of the actual laughter that the joke might have received. In other words "recorded live" does not mean that the sound was not manipulated.

.

To try and get people to laugh at the stupid jokes.

I hate shows like that. I think its pretty lame and nothing on there is usually funny at all.

with many of these so-called comedies if it wasn't for the laugh track i would miss the punchline.

It's cheaper than hiring good writers.