Cheap jokes, or laugh tracks instructing you when and where to chuckle, are the norm.
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Most of us, when we encounter such ideas often shrug our shoulders, ignore or laugh about it.
Stare in wonderment, stare in horror, throw up, walk out, or laugh?
But before we get too smug, or laugh at the Greeks for their ill-advised choices of logo - whether rape or owls - we should look at our own.
And what is so amazing is that this same society will pay to go be insulted, or laugh at a comedian insulting another group, and we will go home saying how great the show was.
The on-set sequences are savagely satirical, as a diva feeds her dog caviar while Stracci looks on, actors in the Crucifixion scene pick their noses or laugh at inappropriate moments, and crew members call out for the crown of thorns as if it were hardware.
Watching the trial live on television, or standing outside the court building listening to the proceedings through loudspeakers, Filipinos did not know whether to laugh or cry, as a bumbling prosecution team ineptly set about trying to prove that Mr Estrada was a villain who should forthwith be removed from office.
Here's the punchline which may make you laugh or cry, depending on how you view these things.
Cartoons often use stereotypes as a tool to make a point, or get a laugh.
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Their work can (as all art should) make us laugh or make us cry.
Sometimes, we just need a break, a chance to laugh or escape from the moment.
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During minute two Baby cried and we went to get him, uncertain whether to laugh or cry.
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Easy with a laugh or an arm around the shoulder, the man insists on having everything just so.
Almost everything begins in improvisation, and his aim is never merely to make an audience laugh or cry.
It won't judge, it won't get impatient, it won't laugh or correct if the child makes a mistake.
Oh, sure, his wife might laugh or roll her eyes at his antics.
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It can stir emotions, cause fights, make you laugh or make you cry.
Adults can typically shrug off sleep-texting with a laugh or an apology, but there could be greater consequences for adolescents.
"When you allow yourself to think of it, you don't know whether you are going to laugh or cry, " he says.
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Once they gather around the clubhouse for a brew and postmortem of the round, they would laugh or hate each other all over again.
Economists need to explain, therefore, why a rational consumer would be persuaded by an ad which offers nothing but an enticing image or a good laugh.
Even if it is merely being able to successfully predict whether that joke we are thinking of telling will make others laugh or just embarrass us instead.
Well there is a wonderful story about this in the Financial Times, which - if you are a geek like me - will either make you laugh or cry.
"This one is going to take some time to sink in, walking round the ground seeing family I don't know whether to laugh or cry, it's a really special moment, " said Flintoff.
Add to that his call for a referendum to bring back the franc and to take France out of the European Union, and the mainstream parties are unsure whether to laugh or cry.
Falkirk fans didn't know whether to laugh or cry last season as they came perilously close to being relegated but also reached their first Scottish Cup final in 12 years and consequently qualified for Europe for the first time ever.
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