Yes, there's a live audience. The actors say every line while leaving a long pause in between. Those pauses are where the audience is encouraged to laugh by the audience director.
Now let's say the actors flub their lines or miss their marks four times in a row and the audience doesn't think the joke is still funny on take five... they completely and totally add canned laughter in, or take the first reaction, and part of the second reaction, and mix it into the fifth take.
If someone laughs so hard they start coughing, then they mix it out. If the audience doesn't laugh enough, then they add a little extra (this is called "sweetening").
Honestly, there's so much mixing involved in the "live audience reaction" that it might as well be completely canned laughter. Only one out of a hundred audience reactions are left alone as is.
It’s recorded with an audience.
Yes, there's a live audience. The actors say every line while leaving a long pause in between. Those pauses are where the audience is encouraged to laugh by the audience director.
Now let's say the actors flub their lines or miss their marks four times in a row and the audience doesn't think the joke is still funny on take five... they completely and totally add canned laughter in, or take the first reaction, and part of the second reaction, and mix it into the fifth take.
If someone laughs so hard they start coughing, then they mix it out. If the audience doesn't laugh enough, then they add a little extra (this is called "sweetening").
Honestly, there's so much mixing involved in the "live audience reaction" that it might as well be completely canned laughter. Only one out of a hundred audience reactions are left alone as is.