An applause sign draws the audience into the uproariously chaotic spoof.

IT happened without a commissioner disguised as a stagehand flashing an "applause" sign to prompt an ooh or an ahh from the public over the latest hot talent.

To ensure that the terrain is recognized, there are television monitors and an applause sign, and the game show is interrupted for unfunny commercials for other Off Broadway shows.

"It's only we can't have an entire audience of visually impaired people," he said, "because no one would be able to read the applause sign."

They are words that pop out of their surround, that have built-in applause signs and that, if inflected properly, step into the spotlight as verbal celebrities, the stars of our sentences.

I don't know who was responsible for the applause signs or the hyperactivity of their bearer (Paul Singleton as the Stage Manager), but there were too many unfunny dead spots between the moments of genuine absurdity.

An "applause" sign lights up, getting the live audience prepared to act as a television audience.

If Mr. Hofsiss's vision is of sitcom land, give the man a laugh track and a lighted applause sign.

When she points to Toledo, Ohio, the applause sign flashes wildly.

"For the comedy shows, they used to use these signs," Mr. Settel said, holding up an applause sign and then a laugh sign.