Laugh tracks became a staple of American multi-camera sitcoms from the 1950s onward, when studio audiences were recorded or sweetened to cue viewers at home to laugh along with each joke. As those shows were rerun and clipped online, the sound became shorthand for old-school television comedy itself. Creators now reuse it far beyond sitcoms, dropping it into YouTube videos, TikTok edits and streams to signal irony, celebrate a deliberately cheesy joke or soften an awkward pause. Its familiarity is the point: almost everyone recognises it instantly, even without seeing the original show.