Oh, I'm not saying comedy shows can't work without a laughtrack. But there's a difference between adding a laughtrack after the fact, a la M*A*S*H, and shooting the scene with pauses for laughter as part of the rhythm. Watching 30 Rock with a laughtrack would be weird. But I'm guessing so would watching Married... with Children (or your own favorite studio-audience sitcom) without one.

I don't think BBT is filmed with a live audience, which would be why the pause-for-laughters feel particularly artificial and forced. There's a discernible difference between someone trying to get to the next line but not being able to over a laughing audience, and someone just halting after every line or two so the editor can slap some laughter down. But I do think removing laughtracks that were meant to be there would create awkward rhythms in any show.

I'm not a fan of laugh tracks in general since they always feel canned and affect the pacing. I understand that a live audience is useful to give actors live feedback (I hear directors are good for that too...), but I object to being informed that something is funny and half the time it's just distracting.

I'd rather BBT not have a laugh track, but there it is. Incidentally, Big Bang Theory is mostly filmed in front of a live audience, but presumably the laughs are "sweetened" afterwards.

RadioLab has a segment about professional sitcom laughers in their Laughter show. The specific story starts around 22:30, but fans of DIF aren't fazed by mere hour long podcasts.

We professional laughers often do... um... "private shows." I'm not proud of it, but it's a living.

Laughter is the best form of birth control.