10 Tired Sitcom Clichés That Really Need To Die

It’s winter, which means that the new TV season is underway, and for comedy, at least in the US, tastes are starting to shift away from conventional multi-camera sitcoms. To nobody’s surprise, The Big Bang Theory is still going, and Will & Grace has made a comeback, but elsewhere, multi-cam comedies are dropping like flies.

2 Broke Girls, Dr. Ken, and Last Man Standing all got the boot, Baby Daddy bowed out after six years, and Kevin Can Wait has undergone a significant reshuffle, with the firing of female lead Erinn Hayes. Elsewhere, more low-key and serious comedies like Fleabag and Modern Family are the new black.

Of course, this is only natural since comedy goes in cycles in terms of what's popular. If it had come out at around the same time as The Office, Mrs Brown’s Boys would have probably been completely slaughtered, instead of becoming a smash hit. US multi-camera comedy is undoubtedly in a bit of a slump right now, but there’s bound to be another big success at some point.

Until that next big thing comes around though, the tide turning against studio sitcoms in the US does suggest that there are some things about the genre that audiences feel they could do without...

Hey, everybody. Whooo! This bit’s all about the studio audience. Whooo! And it’s not going to be positive. Whooo! See? Even in writing, that’s annoying.

The live studio audience and how their laughter is edited have taken a lot of flak ever since single camera sitcoms became more popular. But then, laughter isn’t the real problem, the occasional whooping and cheering is.

Laughter is less intrusive because it’s a natural reaction, and, in theory at least, comes at the same time as the audience at home laughing. Shouting out “whooo” when your favourite character comes on is not a natural reaction. It being so manufactured, and often being in response to something as mundane as an actor walking through a door (aherm, 2 Broke Girls) really takes you out of the experience when you’re watching at home.

It’s a bit like at concerts and musicals when some of the audience feel the need to cheer and clap when their favourite song starts. So since multi-camera sitcoms are basically recorded theatre, with the exception of laughter, let’s see if the studio audience can start to follow theatre etiquette and keep it zipped.

Bonus Points If: A specific character ends up consistently getting this response.