Slate[1] reports:
When you pay to go to a comedy club, there's an expectation that the show will be ... funny. Right? Except that expectation is really more of a hope--standup is pretty hit or miss. Unless you're seeing someone really exceptional, you're probably in for an uneven ride. And a Spanish comedy club only wants you to pay for the parts that get you laughing.
At the Teatreneu club in Barcelona, tablets on the back of every seat run facial recognition software to track how often audience members crack up. According to BBC News , at the end of the show each person gets charged about 38 cents per laugh, for a total of no more than about $30. That means the club thinks people are going to laugh about 80 times per show. Ambitious.
Teatreneu is working with The Cyranos McCann, an advertising agency, to see if it can use the novel initiative to bring audience numbers back up. In Spain, taxes on tickets for entertainment like comedy have reduced crowds in recent months.
Teatreneu told BBC News that ticket prices are up about $7.50 since the club started using software to track laughs, and it has also added a mobile payment app to make checkout quicker.
It seems like a great idea for those awkward sets where a comedian bombs and the audience is feeling kind of ripped off, but it could cause problems if people try not to laugh on purpose so they won't have to pay as much. Check disputes could become a matter of arguing about whether a facial expression was mirth or pity. Plus it could be embarrassing to compare ticket costs with friends and find out that you paid $25 and they paid only $3.
[1] Sorry. Couldn't find a site covering this that has pages that don't suck.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 19 2014, @06:03PM
The audience is laughing *at* the performer, rather than *with* them?
Me: "My last girlfriend was so fat, that when she used to sit around the house, she sat. There she sat. Umm."
*consults notes*
Me: "AROUND the house."
*pause*
Me: "Looks like I just made about $25 right there."
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday October 19 2014, @09:00PM
This is almost verbatim from a stand-up comedy show I took a fat bitch to:
Comedian: " Yeah, Mexicans drive low-riders because it's easier to pick lettuce in 'em. "
Audience: " Ha ha ha! "
Comedian: " Black guys or black eyes? Around black guys you're guaranteed to get both! "
Audience: " Ha ha ha! "
Comedian: " Go to any Asian place and get your wife a manicure while you get a handjob! "
Audience: " Ha ha ha! "
Comedian: " Why do Jews have big noses? Is it because air is free? "
Audience: "Oooooooooohhhh..."
Comedian: " Oh, so it's okay to talk shit about Black people then?! "
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 19 2014, @09:27PM
So, you're into the fatties then?
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Sunday October 19 2014, @06:59PM
OK, so now a poker face pays out even when watching comedy.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 20 2014, @03:09PM
Yeah, that's what I was thinking, the last thing I want when watching comedy is to have to try not to laugh.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 15 2014, @11:05PM
tuCQag cavxmgccwerp [cavxmgccwerp.com], [url=http://idqdiosrshpe.com/]idqdiosrshpe[/url], [link=http://ahskpdfgxyms.com/]ahskpdfgxyms[/link], http://vivavqsxcggs.com/ [vivavqsxcggs.com]
(Score: 2) by PizzaRollPlinkett on Sunday October 19 2014, @07:03PM
How about a facial recognition technology that recognizes how delighted/disappointed you are with news, and promotes/bans the site from your RSS feeds? A few quality sites would bubble to the top, and the rest would sink as this thing registered your happiness/frustration with your news feeds. Interesting article-no, it's Ray Kurzweil nuttiness again. Interesting article-no, it's someone trying to sell the book they wrote. Interesting article-no, it's a massaged press release. Interesting article-but it's Ars Technica splitting an article over 10 pages again. Interesting article-no, it's a Wired piece that mentions something that's been in the news but has no new information. Interesting article-wow, this is informative. Interesting article-I like this site! Interesting article-they sure did in-depth research.
(E-mail me if you want a pizza roll!)
(Score: 2) by halcyon1234 on Monday October 20 2014, @01:45AM
Original Submission [thedailywtf.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 20 2014, @07:47AM
How would that program distinguish whether I'm disappointed with the news presentation (too sensational, or too little content) or whether I'm disappointed with the news content (Debian switches to systemd)?
(Score: 1) by forkazoo on Sunday October 19 2014, @07:06PM
You generally tax things you want to reduce. By actively incentivising not laughing, it seems like some people will be intentionally trying to keep themselves from laughing. Every chuckle costs them extra money. So, the people who don't care will be surrounded by a group of people who aren't laughing. Having people around you laughing makes it easier to laugh, so the people who don't care will also laugh less.
Everybody walks away saying, "It wasn't very funny, and I didn't have very much fun." Or best case scenario, "It was funny, but it was unusually expensive compared to other funny venues." If they really want to use this technology, there should be a fixed ticket price, with a discount applied toward your drinks for laughing a lot. This encourages people to laugh and is a good positive feedback loop where the crowd will generally be laughing and encouraging the midlevel comics who might get rattled if the crowd isn't being very supportive.
(Score: 1) by curunir_wolf on Sunday October 19 2014, @09:39PM
You generally tax things you want to reduce.
If you're using tax code for social engineering you do, sure. I don't think that's the case here. Barcelona (or Spain) probably is not interested in reducing attendance to live club performances. Maybe I'm wrong, but it sounds like an unintended side-effect in this case.
I am a crackpot
(Score: 2) by WizardFusion on Monday October 20 2014, @12:22PM
you must have misded this bit then...
(Score: 2) by Leebert on Sunday October 19 2014, @07:15PM
If we're going to wholesale rip off articles by copying and pasting them into the summary, could we please at least blockquote them?
It would, of course, be preferable if the article summary were actually a summary, but at least give credit where credit is due.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 19 2014, @07:46PM
Yeah, I've been doing pretty good lately on adding the tag.
When I submitted my next item, I realized I had missed that on this one.
I figured the editor would go ahead and add it this time.
As you note, both of us missed it.
-- gewg_
(Score: 2) by Leebert on Sunday October 19 2014, @10:26PM
Understandable; I've been known to forget a tag here and there myself.
My concern is more systemic. I've noticed that story summaries submitted here on Soylent are very often pure cut-and-paste jobs, which at least to me seems to be in poor taste. Yes, I know the ultimate solution is to submit more stories myself and practice as I preach in those submissions, but I think it is also a reasonable thing to call out to try to raise the issue a bit in the collective conscience of the community. Particularly in some of the more egregious cases such as this one, where essentially the entirety of the article is quoted verbatim.
Sorry, gewg_, not singling you out per se.
(Score: 2) by lhsi on Monday October 20 2014, @08:58AM
To be fair, some sources summarise a topic really well anyway, and it seems pointless to try and re-summarise it just to avoid a "copy and paste" in a blockquote.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Sunday October 19 2014, @07:35PM
Botox! and masks for the cheapskates ;-)
(Score: 1) by dlb on Sunday October 19 2014, @09:07PM
...would be to charge everyone the full price, and then subtract amounts for percentages of time that they laugh. A chuckle, however mild, would mean more money in the patron's pocket, and encourage them to laugh. Laughter's contagious. Could be an upward spiral leading to the patrons having a better time than what the talent alone offered. Happy customers usually mean profits.
(Score: 2) by Dunbal on Sunday October 19 2014, @09:49PM
So what happens when I put a piece of tape over the camera or hold my thumb over it during the whole performance? Who's laughing NOW, bitch?
(Score: 2) by jasassin on Monday October 20 2014, @02:31AM
Reminds me of the gameshow "Make Me Laugh". I remember this guy with a moustache that maintained a stoic puss the entire time.
jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Monday October 20 2014, @02:23PM
What! They charge dollars in Barcelona? Not Euros? Do they appeal exclusively to American tourists?