Canned Laughter

What is it about canned instant laughter that tv watchers or rather show producers love so much. Today i 'managed' to watch animal planet where they had this show titled "Worlds Funniest Animals" or something like that. So this show had a bunch of animals performing antics and a group of bozos laughing their asses out in the backdrop(you only get to hear them, thank god).
When i was a kid i used to think that there was this group of people watching the show as i was and when they laugh that gets recorded and replayed along with the show, when i watch it on tv. And most always, i used to never get any of the jokes and i used to wonder whether my sense of humor was in need of serious repair. Only when i grew up i realized that they get people to fake laughter on jokes, the show producers think is funny. So they have a group of people sitting there, laughing on cue from some initiator. By initiator, i mean any guy holding up laughter placards whenever a scene comes up. Like he has this cue card for sighs, serious smirks,mild laughs, extreme laughs and maniacal laughs. And occasionally one or 2 of em don't get the cue or misread their cards, that's when you get that extra laugh or a sigh when its not required or was not intended by the producers.
But what is it that makes canned laughter seem so profoundly idiotic? If you said its the show, then you are partly right, but mostly its because of the bleak script.So when an unfunny and unlaughable gag comes up and when people(in the background) laugh like hyenas on steroids having fits, you don't necessarily feel good about anything in the show, actresses or actors or anything associated with it. The worst part is that they stick with this approach in animal shows as well, where obviously the animals cant talk. If they could talk or better yet, if they had a gun they would have done an arnold "astalavista baby" act there itself.
I wonder if the producers got the idea from hyenas, cause these animals seem to laugh whenever and whatever they do, even when they are being hunted down. And you thought that wasnt funny....