When Murphy Brown (Candice Bergen) walks back into Phil’s Bar (now run by Tyne Daly as Phil’s sister, Phyllis), the studio audience applauds. Why wouldn’t they? The original “Murphy Brown” was a cultural milestone, and Ms. Bergen’s acid performance as a brilliant, abrasive TV journalist was a classic of the form.

In another episode, Murphy’s old colleague Jim Dial (Charles Kimbrough) tells her not to give in to pressure to interview the white nationalist blowhard Ed Shannon (David Costabile, wearing multiple shirts lest you miss the Steve Bannon rhyme). “You don’t have to give equal time to someone who claims Tom Hanks is running a shadow government,” Jim says. Again, the audience applauds.

Later, Murphy runs into Shannon at the bar, and immolates him in an argument, telling him that he’s going to end up “a sad, sad, sad, sad dinosaur who went extinct.”

The audience applauds, and applauds again.

You see the pattern. The revival, beginning Thursday on CBS, is feisty and eager to meet the Trumpian moment. But it’s become the kind of sitcom that prefers applause to laughs. (Or at least it goes for “clapter,” the kind of laughs audiences award like merit badges for validating their beliefs.)