Colin you are not alone in your dislike of canned laughter and clapping. It seems the modern way today to have some one else do your laughing for you. Seemed to originate from the USA and the way that they portray comedy as a long list of one liners with canned laughter after each one with no semblence of continunity (hope I got that right). To go back to basic comedy one could not go past the silent movies and the sounds of the audience laughing was infective. Trouble is now they are to bloody scared to put on a good show with using the canned much that probably was recorded from the movie house's that showed silent comedy movies. Can anyone else see how ironic that is. If some one falls down I still see the funny side of it unlike a lot today who have not experienced slap stick comedy.
That's the way the mop flops.
My thanks to Brian for this site.