Every now and then I’ll watch or hear something that’s so funny I’ll laugh until I cry, for several good solid minutes. (At the moment, I think the Stephen Colbert “cracks up” videos are hysterical).
But then, for a few hours or a couple days afterwards, I find it hard to laugh at things that are funny, as if my brain needs to reset itself after my bout of hysterical laughter.
Is this a rather common phenomenon? And what’s the scientific reason for it?
It’s because you’re one weird dude.
Your post is my cite. 
Awesome. Ignorance successfully fought.
Saw this one still hadn’t been answered, so here’s a bump. Any reason some people experience a laughter “refractory period”? Perhaps the brain becomes momentarily more tolerant of endorphins or… something?
I’ve never experienced this. Anecdotally it seems most people become more receptive to laughter the more they laugh, after the ice is broken. To the point you might laugh at really dumb things that wouldn’t have warranted a chuckle earlier.
As South Park put it - blowing your funny fuse.
Melanocortin depletion?
My wife is the opposite. She cries until she laughs, realizing how absurd it is for her to be crying in the first place.
Turn around, every now and then I fall apart; And I need you now, tonight…
I think perhaps the scientific term is “a total eclipse of the heart”?