Studio audiences on sitcoms

[fluffythedragonslayer]

I am watching Miranda (again... 😁)

I'm probably being dumb and I'm not sure how to google the answer so here goes.

How do they surprise the audience? There is a scene in Miranda where (spoiler!) Gary come into the therapist office to see her and proposes and the audience are all "ooh woo yay cheer" and then it cuts to Miranda on her own and she imagined it and the audience are all "ohhhh" disappointed. But if they are watching it being filmed then they won't see it as a surprise as they see it all set up and filmed in different bits etc so they won't make those surprised noises.

So are the surprised / sad noises fake? And the big laughs when something isn't what it seems? Or camera suddenly cuts to a weird funny thing?
Fake too? Because the audience will see what it actually is and not the tricky funny thing...

Never really thought about it until now 😂

I think:
a) they run the live bits in 'order'
b) any offsite shots are pre filmed and then played in on big screens to the audience to see them in the right place in the show and to catch the audience reactions

Have you seen Mrs Brown's Boys? They show more of how it is created with shots of the audience, occasional sights of cameras etc.

I can't speak for sitcoms but when I was in the audience on a kid's show, they told us to cheer and laugh and sound surprised at certain points.

I can't type today.

Canned laughter.

@TeenMinusTests please do not encourage anyone to watch the worst programme on the BBC probably of all time. Calling Mrs Brown's Boys a comedy is a misuse of the language.

I can only imagine someone would be holding up massive cards to prompt the audience to go "yay Ooooo" etc.

I was in a studio audience years ago and they made us watch the same bits over and over again until they got the right reaction.

I was in a live studio audience years ago too and agree with @LucyLocketsBlackCat. I found the whole thing a bit tedious tbh

I can only imagine someone would be holding up massive cards to prompt the audience to go "yay Ooooo" etc.

When watching the likes of Friends, I've always wondered whether audience members are instructed to scream at celebrity cameos and romantic moments or if they just get that excited.

Interesting replies, thank you 😊 I've been in the audience for a panel show (Never Mind the Buzzcocks) and of course there are re-takes of stuff but never any real need for fake responses like surprise etc

A friend & I went to watch a sitcom be filmed and it was so boring, after about 2½ hours we left. They encourage people to laugh really loudly & I think they had a mike by one man as his laugh was so good.