I'd love to be a fly on the wall in the meeting where this idea was proposed. Was the initial laughter severe? Was it muted? Was it not laughter but actual "hmm" while thinking about it being a good idea? Like how many follow up pitches did it take?

I've been a part of meetings with pitches on how to solve something where I've been shot down and weeks spent on other ideas only for them to fail ultimately coming to my original suggestion to work. It is very satisfying. I'm guessing the person(s) that came up with this might have had a similar experience.