nodder
n.— «I thought it would be just the two of us and a hi-fi. But I ended up in a recording studio with about 20 nodders; a nodder is someone who gets paid to agree with the person paying him.» —“Cowell Regrets Not Being Honest About Murphy’s Pop Tunes” Contactmusic.com (United Kingdom) Jan. 15, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
How do actors bring Shakespeare’s lines to life so that modern audiences immediately understand the text? One way is to emphasize the names of people and places at certain points. That technique is called billboarding. And: Anyone for an...
We asked for your thoughts about whether cursive writing should be taught in schools — and many of you replied with a resounding “Yes!” You said cursive helps develop fine motor skills, improves mental focus, and lets you read old...
One of P.G. Wodehouse’s Hollywood short stories features a Nodder. (He hopes to work his way up the career ladder to Yes-man.) The story probably dates from the 1930s. If it’s to the point, I can look it up.