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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.