Three Best Broadcaster Laugh Attacks

There are few things that can incite the stoic Anderson Cooper to even crack a smile, much less crack up laughing. Recently, Cooper fans learned that the best way to get a chuckle out of the TV personality is to mention public urination. In a regular bit called the "Ridculist," Cooper shelled out a number of mildly inappropriate potty jokes, including the following gems:

* "So, D epardi eu created his own little jet stream. Or as the French would say, 'Oui oui!'"

* "Hmm ... City Jet. I would've guessed he flies Incontinental."

* "They [airline passengers] saw an actual thespian actually thes-peein'."

With each bad pun he told, Cooper lost a bit more control until he was having an all-out laugh attack. And I'm not just talking about a bit of mild chuckling. I mean a hardcore, giggly fit, teary-eyed laugh attack. In the midst of his snickering, he managed to squeak out, "Sorry, this has never actually happened to me." While Anderson Cooper may not have been party to such outbursts in the past, many of his fellow television hosts have.

Matt Lauer

In November 2010, NBC Today Show host Matt Lauer lost it during an interview about increases in food prices and the ideal size of food containers for customers. What set him off? Advice on the screen that warned Lauer to "pay attention to package size." Not only did Lauer end up in hysterics, the woman he was interviewing did too.

Craig Ferguson

Earlier this year, broadcaster Ferguson had a laugh attack of his own. This time, the culprit was not a peeing French actor, but Ferguson's very own Geoff the Robot. While reading a "tweetmail," from a fan in Edinburgh, Craig Ferguson asks Geoff the Robot if he ever gets out to Scotland. Geoff responds, "Oh hell yeah, I've got a place there ... you should come over." Geoff the Robot proceeds to send Ferguson into a fit of the giggles when telling him exactly what the two of them will do together when they visit Edinburgh. Ferguson finally ends the long period of uprorious laughter with a toot on the harmonica.

Erik Hartman

It remains unclear if Erik Hartman's laugh attack was real or staged for comedic purposes. In a YouTube video that quickly went viral, the Belgian host couldn't stop laughing at a male guest who had an unusually high-pitched voice as a result of a botched surgery. The circulating YouTube video claims that Hartman lost his job following the debacle, but Snopes users dismiss the video as a comedy sketch.