I was tickled to read comedian Davey Johns' comments on Facebook recently about the phenomenon of homing in on the audience member who isn't laughing. Johns nailed the situation perfectly: "There's a couple just stoney faced. Nothing from them at all. All around laughter but they are oblivious to it and in your head you're just thinking 'what the fuck is wrong with them?' Everyone is having a great laugh, but your head is just focused on why the fuck aren't they laughing."

It's something I've seen from the stalls a number of times over the years. It must be one of the advantages of playing arenas that you can barely see the crowd, so you can barely see the one person in the 16,000 not splitting their sides. But even at big gigs at the Hammersmith Apollo I've seen this. Super funny comedians doing their best material to no response from just one person.

The trouble with comedians is that it brings out their competitive instincts. In an ideal world they world ignore Mr or Mrs Gloomy and concentrate on entertaining everybody else. But their job is to bring sunshine into people's lives and they just can't resist a challenge.

It makes me wonder why these people go to comedy gigs. Tickets are hardly cheap, yet there they sit with their arms folded. Have they been dragged along by their dates or mates? Surely everyone can find something to laugh at. Not liking comedy is like not liking food. 

Sometimes, however, people have a different way of showing their appreciation. I'm not a loud laugher myself. I do most of my chuckling on the inside, which, as they say, is not much good for the atmosphere at a gig. But I do at least smile to show my appreciation. Sometimes, of course, comedians get it wrong, they pick out a guy who looks like they are not enjoying it only to be told that the person in question is loving it – that frown is their normal expression. Jason Manford replied to Johns on Facebook that he has sometimes asked people what's wrong, only to be told: 'oh sorry, that's just my face when I'm listening!"

The funny thing is that as a critic I have a similar problem. When I'm sitting in an audience I can't help noticing the people around me. I like to take in everything that is going on and get a sense of how others are responding to the show and there are always going to be people in the audience who are not quite having the time of their lives. The trouble is they always seem to sit in front of me. 

Maybe it's a couple on the brink of divorce, Maybe it's someone who has personal troubles. Or maybe it is just someone who doesn't get the comedy. But I've learnt over the years to spot the body language. You don't have to be Sherlock. While everybody else's heads move as they laugh or merely smile, they might as well be statues.  

The other tell-tale sign of someone not enjoying themselves, however, is when they move too much. I was watching Nick Helm at The Pleasance in Edinburgh last summer and my eyes were quickly drawn to four people a few rows in front of me. After about three minutes – shortly after Helm had said "let's kick this gig in the dick" – I noticed the outline of heads leaning into each other. As the gig went on they did it more and more. Sure enough, when Helm was addressing the other side of the room they all got up and left. This was no fault of Helm. Sometimes you can't please everyone. 

It is hard to predict who will behave like this though. I was at a gig recently where a woman in front of me was giggling and dancing to the intro music then was silent for the entire duration of the performance. She seemed to enjoy the build-up far more than the actual set. It's a bit like enjoying the cutlery more than the meal.

The popularity of stand-up on television may have contributed to this issue. People may have seen someone do a gentle set on Live at the Apollo then, if they are not used to live, uncut comedy, might be taken aback by what they see onstage. I noticed a couple who appeared frozen solid during Greg Davies's gig at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in December. Davies is no Jerry Sadowitz, but it looked like his story about putting his dad's underpants on their pet dog was a gag too far for them.

As a critic I've learnt to remind myself that these people are the exceptions. There is no point letting them spoil your enjoyment. I guess comedians need to learn to do the same thing. There's the old saying on the lines of "play the room, not the critic". Maybe there should also be a new saying, "play the room, not the miserable sod who wouldn't break into a grin if you told them they'd just won the Lottery."

You can watch Davey Johns trying to make everyone laugh when he is on the bill of the Laugh Til It Hurts Benefit at the Bloomsbury Theatre on January 22. Also appearing are Hardeep Singh Kohli (MC), Joe Wilkinson, Hal Cruttenden, Shappi Khorsandi and Charlie Baker. Details here.