Yes. And some of the stories are almost too strange to believe.
The most famous case is the ancient Greek philosopher Chrysippus of Soli (c. 279–206 BC). According to legend, he saw a donkey eating figs and told his slave to give the animal some wine. The absurdity of the scene — a drunk donkey — sent him into a laughing fit so violent that he collapsed and died. His student, Diogenes Laërtius, recorded it. Modern historians debate whether it was a heart attack, asphyxiation, or pure embellishment.
Then there is Alex Mitchell, a 50-year-old British bricklayer who died in 1975 while watching the BBC sketch show The Goodies. The episode “Kung Fu Kapers” featured a Scotsman fighting a man in black pudding armor. Mitchell laughed for 25 minutes straight, then collapsed. His wife found the episode so funny that she later sent a letter to the show thanking them for making her husband’s final moments happy.
Medically, prolonged, uncontrollable laughter can cause asphyxia, cardiac arrest, or syncope. It is rare, but not impossible. The condition is sometimes called gelastic syncope or fatal hilarity.
So yes, people have died laughing. The trick is to laugh hard enough to feel alive, but not so hard that you forget to breathe.