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On April 8, Charles R. Douglass, the inventor of canned laughter—the

artificial jollity that accompanies comical moments on TV shows—died at 93 in Templeton, California. In the early ’50s, he developed the idea to enhance or substitute live audience reaction on television. This idea was realized in the guise of a keyboard machine; by pressing on different keys, it was possible to produce different kinds of laughter. First used for episodes of <i>The Jack Benny Show</i> and <i>I Love Lucy,</i> today its modernized version is present everywhere.<br><br>

http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/88/