I do it all the time at home when watching a funny TV show or movie. Sometimes I’ll do it at work if I see a funny SDMB post or if I’m reading The Onion, but I have to suppress my laughter here. People walking by might be wondering what’s so damn funny, as there is nothing inherently comedic about any of the work I do.
Yes, I often laugh out loud when I am alone.
Ditto. Ditto, ditto, and ditto. Damn, everyone’s already said what I was going to say, including the part about the smilies being back. :smack:
Guess I’m just a :wally . Why? 
Because I’m just writing this post to use all the formerly missing smilies! 
Shalom! ;j
Ah, the Whittle.
I can’t read PTerry in public 'coz I’m constantly guffawing. Recent record is four LOL on one page (somewhere in Wyrd Sisters).
Like other folk here just thinking/remembering something will have me laughing out loud. For several weeks a while back just the notion of certain super-weaponry from an early decade of the 20th century brought on the giggles.
I laugh alone all the time, usually watching tv or reading the SDMB at work. My cow-orkers are always asking me “what are you reading over there?!”
I even laugh out loud in my sleep! Sometimes loud enough that I wake myself up, not to mention my girlfriend. One time I woke us up in the middle of the night laughing hysterically. She joined right in even though she had no idea what I was laughing about. Good times. 
Books are probably the biggest culprit in my laughing-while-alone affliction. I was reading Douglas Adams’ Salmon of Doubt and was just in stitches the entire time. Earned some particularly odd looks on the train that way.
I’ll also find myself chuckling over something funny that happened in the past - a funny comment or moment will come to the front of my memory and… that also gets me odd looks.
Come to think of it, there isn’t much that I do that doesn’t get me an odd look or two. Hrm.
Yep - if it’s funny.
DEF-initely!
Is it strange to laugh to oneself?
The Simpsons, Family Guy and SDMB are frequent culprits.
Does it count if someone writes something funny via message software ala AIM?
It strikes me as odd that people wouldn’t laugh out loud when they were alone, because that implies that laughter isn’t so much a natural reaction to amusement, but instead a voluntary expression to the people around you that something is funny. I wonder if there’s any connection between that (not laughing when alone) and the ability to supress laughter. I know that I can’t - I find myself laughing even when I am trying not to on a daily basis.
THAT post made me LOL and I’m alone at work right now. I LOL alone ALL THE TIME!!!
My name is OneYogini and I laugh out loud when by myself. It’s been less than one minute since my last laugh-out-loud outburst.
I have done this twice; that is, wake myself up laughing because of the hysterical dream I am having. Afterwards, I felt absurd, especially when I realized on waking that the dreams were just not that funny. :smack:
Rarely. I have often thought to ask this question myself. My theory is that laughter is more of a social thing and usually only happens in groups. But I know enough people who laugh while alone that I assume my theory is flawed.
The title of the thread reminded me of a joke my Grand-dad used to tell.
A man was sitting in a cafe when he noticed another man sitting alone. The man sitting alone would occasionally burst out into laughter, and other times frown, and wave his hand dismissively.
The first man eventually became curious enough that he approached the other man and asked him what he was doing.
“Oh, when I get bored, I tell myself jokes to pass the time.”
“But why do you wave your hand every now and then.”
“That’s when I tell myself one I’ve heard before.”
I laugh by myself. I usually try to memorize what made me laugh so I can tell my wife later on.
I have often laughed when I’m alone and reading the SDMB, reading Bridget Jones’s Diary, or watching an Eddie Izzard DVD. 
yep, it keeps the neighbours and cats on their toes.
Mine too. I think the all-time record for making me laugh while alone was the first dozen or so times I read Niven & Gerrold’s Flying Sorcerors (which was a long time ago). Not a big PTerry fan, and he’s probably the funniest author currently writing in the F&SF field. Bujold can occasionally do it.
On the (rare) occasions that someone emails me a really funny joke I haven’t already seen 987 times, that’ll do it, too.
But I love laughing, (almost) anytime, anywhere. I remember being at a “viewing” for one of my uncles a decade or more ago. Somebody said something funny, and I laughed. One of my surviving uncles (perhaps the last, at that point) gave me a mild reproof. I responded, “But Daddy would have laughted,” and he admitted that was so. And at least I don’t laugh as loudly (in public) as my father (I don’t think he really knew how to do anything queitly).
All the time … I’m an aspiring screenwriter and will laugh out loud for no reason anywhere - which tends to get me some odd looks when I’m in a public place. It’s no use asking me what I’m laughing at, it wouldn’t make any sense to anyone else
Yep, my son will often come running into my room to see what is so funny when I’m watching a funny TV show.
What an unexpectedly interesting thread!
I laugh too, but what made the thread OP interesting is that I’ve only recently noticed myself doing this.
It’s lovely. I have music; videos; spoken word tapes; books, and of course, the SDMB to read, to give me a great big cheer up anytime I need it. But the best bit is when I’m alone. I really do have a big laugh.
I’m lucky; I have plenty of space in my business life and my personal life, so it would be nothing really for other people to hear me laughing out loud about something, to myself. However, when I have thought about it, I don’t think I ever do that.
I guess I find it interesting as I always thought the best laughs were from being shared. And here some of us are honking away, with just the cat or dog looking on a bit bewildered.
I’ve really enjoyed reading what other people have posted.