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Not all that different from the 18th century "claque," when theater owners or playwrights would pay groups to attend their performances and applaud loudly. A variant was paying a group to boo and hiss a rival production.

A line doesn't make me want to go to a place. I prefer someplace that's not super crowded, though obviously not totally empty.

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That sounds a lot like how many sitcoms use a laugh track. I remember when I was young and naive, I thought "that can't possibly be funny. He only answered the bloody door", thinking it was real people.

I now know that laughter stimulates laughter so it kinda makes sense. You can make a show funnier by pretending an audience is laughing.

In this sense, a queue out of the door shows high demand. Generally, people want things in high demand.

Would people want to wear diamonds if they were as cheap as glass and the price reflected that?

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