Invented by a bogus corporation run by Bing Crosby, the laugh track was first used in situation comedies of the 1950s, and has annoyed semi-sentinent people ever since. It is the main clue that you are watching a very bad, extremely low grade comedy which relys on the healthy sense of humor of people laughing at other people in danger of being run down by trains in order to get a chuckle from their own viewers.