Canned laughter dates back to early television, when sound engineer Charley Douglass built the Laff Box in the 1950s to sweeten live and filmed comedies. The device sampled real audience reactions, and sitcoms soon relied on it to cue home viewers when to laugh. As shows moved toward live audiences and single-camera formats, the laugh track became a nostalgic signature of nineties comedy. Online, creators revived it as an ironic meme device, layering the warm crowd laughter under fails, bad jokes and awkward moments to make the forced reaction the joke itself.