AI sitcom forced to hire an audience

An AI sitcom hired an AI audience this week after its producers discovered that making twenty minutes of television was easier than persuading anyone to watch it.

Barely Watching Productions unveiled a revised episode of its office comedy, Now That You Mention It, featuring rows of computer-generated viewers laughing at jokes the original audience had described as taking place.

The studio said the synthetic crowd was a direct response to criticism of the pilot. It had listened carefully to viewers and replaced them with more supportive ones.

The new audience came in three settings: polite chuckle, hearty laugh and American sitcom entering its ninth season. Producers selected the third after a test screening of a man saying the printer had run out of paper.

Trouble began when the audience laughed before a joke, during a fire drill and throughout a scene in which a character quietly explained his divorce. Engineers called this enthusiasm. The character requested compassionate leave.

The studio then generated a focus group to check whether the laughter sounded natural. It loved it. A second focus group confirmed that the first focus group had excellent taste.

A human test viewer was invited back for the final cut. He declined. The studio generated a version of him who was delighted to attend.