Years ago I heard someone (I want to say it was Bill Hader) on a podcast say that his friend Seth Myers came up with the term claptor to describe reactions from the daily show audience. The term described when an audience would whoop and clap in response to a joke, but not laugh. In other words they agreed with the jokes premise, but it did not actually make them laugh. Of course Seth Myers has gone on to become one of the kings of claptor on his show (no judgement call here, just describing what I have observed).
I would argue that the Jon Stewart hosted daily show had a much higher percentage of genuine laughs than lets say a current Colbert, Myers, Trevor, or Kimmel product. I rarely watch these shows, but when I do I am struck by the lack, to my ears, of genuine laughter.
Have you also noticed this increase of claptor and decrease of laughter? And what do you think the implications are, if any, when something that is supposed to be a release, such as laughing, is replaced by claptor?
