Thanks for that, friedo.
Thanks for this perspective (yours too, friedo and others). We didn’t rewatch it, and just went with our first impression of the incident.
My wife and I are probably a little sensitive to Alex’s awkward interchanges with guests. He is often times awkward with them, and we react to those. It’s become part of our routine when watchingour favorite game show. Oh well.
That’s why I always fast-forward the interview part. I don’t care about these people, just play the damn game! 
Did you read my OP? I realize that such glitches may not be uncommon, even if I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen (heard) one quite like this.
Just as Alex was about to address Laura, the audio dropped out. Alex and Laura exchanged words, she made a mock/comic frowny face, Alex laughed, apparently a genuinely heartfelt prolonged laugh, not at all like his usual cool calm demeanor. As Alex then walked toward the next contestant, the sound quickly faded back in and we heard the audience laughing (really laughing, not polite chuckling), Alex made his dismissive remark to the last guy, and things were back to normal.* There were no other audio dropouts, before or after this one.
Now obviously we couldn’t hear during the dropout, but it looked to us as if something unusual had occurred, and the apparently “precise” timing of the audio fade seemed awfully suspicious, as if it might have been censored. Having read all of the responses here and knowing what was being said, I see that it was probably just a glitch. Sometimes a coincidence is just a coincidence.
“So… burial at sea, I assume?”
That was my take, as well. Alex’s joke was stupid, but no one seemed truly upset about it. Everyone was (over)laughing.
I was wondering if the heart category was to welcome him back, or a creepy premonition.
Creepy premonition. Weren’t the episodes now airing for the first time taped 5-6 months ago?