You’re sitting on your couch, watching a classic sitcom. A punchline lands, and the room fills with laughter—not just yours, but a chorus of warm, familiar chuckles. It feels natural, comforting… but have you ever stopped to wonder?

Who’s actually laughing?

Because the truth is—those voices you hear? The belly laughs, the knee-slapping chuckles, the gasps and cheers?

Most of them belong to people who aren’t alive anymore.

That’s right. The laughter echoing through your favorite shows was recorded decades ago—harvested from live studio audiences in the 1950s and 60s. Some of those same laughs have been playing on loop for over 70 years, locked inside a mysterious invention known as the Laugh Box.

The man behind it? Charles Douglass. A sound engineer who didn’t just capture laughter—he controlled it. He could summon a polite chuckle, a roaring guffaw, even a perfectly timed gasp… all with the push of a button.

And suddenly, comedy changed forever.

But here’s the real question:

If our emotions are being shaped by the echoes of an audience long gone…

What else in our world is being engineered to make us feel a certain way?

In this episode of The Conant Code, we’re pulling back the curtain on the ghostly laughter that’s been haunting television for generations. We’ll uncover the science of emotional contagion—how humans are wired to laugh when others do, even if those “others” only exist as a recorded illusion.

We’ll explore the power of engineered responses—not just in entertainment, but in social media, advertising, and even politics.

Because if a Laugh Box can manipulate how we feel about a joke…

What else is guiding our emotions without us even realizing it?

Tune in. Listen closely.

And the next time you hear that familiar sitcom laughter, ask yourself…

Who’s really laughing?

And that, my friends, is The Conant Code.