> Douglass used a keyboard similar to that of a typewriter to select the corresponding style, gender and age of the laugh as well as a pedal to time the length of the reaction. Inside the machine was a wide array of recorded chuckles, yocks and belly laughs: 320 laughs on 32 tape loops, ten to a loop. Each loop contained up to ten individual audience laughs spliced end-to-end, whirling around simultaneously waiting to be cued up.

Guy was clearly an inventor at heart.

> It was believed that in the absence of any sort of audience reaction, American viewers could not differentiate between a comedy or drama.

Ha. There are literally tiktoks joking about this, proving this is still true even today.