make a cat laugh

present singular third person makes a cat laugh · participle present making a cat laugh · participle past made a cat laugh · past made a cat laugh

1. To be extremely funny.

   It would have made a cat laugh to see the prof's face.

   2013, Patrick Taylor, Fingal O'Reilly, Irish Doctor

   3 more examples

   The only play I know of that has ever established a trademark is "Charlie's Aunt." Perhaps some of you recall "Charlie's Aunt." Before that play was produced in New York City the only printed commentary was "it makes a cat laugh."

   1914 March, Edmund Breese, “The Art of Advertising an Actor”, in The Rotarian, volume 4, number 7, page 28

   All the bowing and scraping was enough to make a cat laugh, but the Princess took it all in her stride — her demeanour commonsensical (didn't everyone who went by train get this sort of treatment?) and a shade demure.

   2013, Robert Barnard, Death and the Princess

   Carr added that he had never seen "another who provoked so much mirth, and who entered into rollicking fun with such glee. He could make a cat laugh.”

   2015, Gordon Leidner, Lincoln's Gift: How Humor Shaped Lincoln's Life and Legacy