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Hoots and Whistles During Late Night Show Monologues

G

Gregg.

I suppose I didn't notice this trend at first. But lately I can't help but notice many late night shows are goosing their audience response with hoots and whistles. It first occurred to me during Conan O'Brien. He'd make a rather mild joke, and yet from the audience, I notice people are whistling and going "HOOOOO" or "WHOOOOA!" He had Jesse Eisenberg as a guest (star of The Social Network). He told the audience "Jesse is a really nice guy." And that remark got hoots and whistles. That CAN'T be happening naturally.

I've been in audiences at TV shows. We don't hoot or whistle, especially when we're seated a few inches from the ears of strangers. Maybe if we stand up during a very loud rock concert, that might happen. But not a TV show. There were no hoots or whistles during a Leno or Letterman monologue. It was either laughter, or if the joke wasn't so funny, maybe there was polite applause. Since the early days of radio, there have been electric applause signs, to prompt the audience to respond more enthusiastically. But I doubt audience members are hooting and whistling on their own, or even if they're prompted by the stage manager.

I haven't done of survey of what shows are doing it other than Conan, but I think I hear it on Steven Colbert and on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. Clearly the producers are planting people in the audience, or maybe it's staffers standing to the side, so they don't hurt the eardrums of real audience members. And those plants are hooting and whistling. I think it's deceitful.
 
Gregg. said:
I suppose I didn't notice this trend at first. But lately I can't help but notice many late night shows are goosing their audience response with hoots and whistles. It first occurred to me during Conan O'Brien. He'd make a rather mild joke, and yet from the audience, I notice people are whistling and going "HOOOOO" or "WHOOOOA!" He had Jesse Eisenberg as a guest (star of The Social Network). He told the audience "Jesse is a really nice guy." And that remark got hoots and whistles. That CAN'T be happening naturally.

I've been in audiences at TV shows. We don't hoot or whistle, especially when we're seated a few inches from the ears of strangers. Maybe if we stand up during a very loud rock concert, that might happen. But not a TV show. There were no hoots or whistles during a Leno or Letterman monologue. It was either laughter, or if the joke wasn't so funny, maybe there was polite applause. Since the early days of radio, there have been electric applause signs, to prompt the audience to respond more enthusiastically. But I doubt audience members are hooting and whistling on their own, or even if they're prompted by the stage manager.

I haven't done of survey of what shows are doing it other than Conan, but I think I hear it on Steven Colbert and on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. Clearly the producers are planting people in the audience, or maybe it's staffers standing to the side, so they don't hurt the eardrums of real audience members. And those plants are hooting and whistling. I think it's deceitful.
Click to expand...

I have seen Leno, Letterman, and even Carson live in studio. The one thing that stands out when you attend a late night taping is the sound. It is nothing like what you hear over the air. A lot of the sound is almost background sounding when in the studio. So I'm sure these big shows do some "sweetening" for the final product.

As an aside, when I saw Letterman in the late 80's at NBC, I noted that during the commercial breaks he would pace around the entire studio and talk to no one. Perhaps he mellowed at CBS, but this was definitely something that I noticed. I don't think he was happy at this time of his career, but that is just my speculation.
 
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Over the last 50 years, live audience "whistles" seem to have given way to "woo girls." As a kid in the late 60s, I thought the audience shows had paid whistlers.

Some of the worst laugh tracks foisted upon an unsuspecting public have been propagated by Nickelodeon kidvid producer Schneider's Bakery. The same "wooooo" tracks could be heard on "iCarly", "Victorious", and maybe even that dreadful "Sam and Cat". Don't know about the latter, it was horrible. Plus my daughter thankfully aged out of the demo by the time "Sam and Cat" rolled out.
 
I still recall that woman saying "Uh-oh!" in practically all the sit-com laugh-tracks of the 50s and 60s. It was used when something surprising would happen. I seem to recall the legend that it was Lucille Ball's mother who first made the utterance - presumably at the filming of an I Love Lucy episode, which I believe was shot with a live audience, though perhaps 'sweetened' a bit with a laugh-track after the filming.
 
Similarly, Night Court creator/producer/writer Reinhold Weege lent his distinctive chortle not justto the show's audience laughter, but also to the 'vanity card' for his production company at the end of every episode (up until he left the series late in the run).
 
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