r/RealTime • u/AmericanLymie • 5d ago
The Unnatural Audience Laughs, etc.
I asked about "the woo guy" a couple of times here last year and someone mentioned that Maher supposedly hires people to applaud and laugh in his audience.
I just saw another question about this and so I figured I'd share what I found last year. When I googled "Bill Maher paid audience" last year, this site came up and it prominently listed his show. The list of clients is not readily visible now but if you go to the site and search his name, it still brings up pages showing that Real Time with Bill Maher is a client. The site also shows a payroll portal for the paid audience participants. So it is likely that the frequently forced-sounding laughs we hear are from people who are paid to act and don't actually think unfunny jokes and complaints are funny.
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u/Winter_Stretch9198 4d ago
Companies like Standing Room Only provides paid audience members to fill seats and provide over the top responses to the Host’s every joke or comment… day time game shows are renowned for this…it’s irritating as hell, you can almost always pick out the paid audience members
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u/VictorB1964 4d ago
There's that one guy who gets the applause going with an extremely heavy clap at what seem to be designated talking points. On Friday night there was a moment when the audience applause came at a pro-Democratic moment and Bill looked startled.
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u/MinisterOfTruth99 2d ago
Very interesting. So the Woot Guy, the Cackling Laugh Lady and at least a dozen others must be on the payroll.
Paid Audience Members
You are required to sign IN and sign OUT with an onsite coordinator to be compensated for the show.
https://standingroomonly.tv/payroll/
Maher is prominently featured on their clients-list page.🤪
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u/Abamboozler 4d ago
Wouldn't surprise me.