Boffola

"You're here to set off skyrockets for Barbara Anne, not to regale us with the steam-room boffolas of Beverly Hills." "Well, I thought it was a cute story," Mr. Blakelee said.

You laugh all the harder because the movie never winds up to hit you with a boffola.

These are the people whose laughter you hear after the boffolas on shows that have been filmed without audiences. I don't suppose all these laughers are dead, but a lot of them must be by this time.