corpsing
n.— «In another featurette the two creators expound on “The Art of Corpsing,” the term for the uncontrollable laughter that, judging by outtakes also included, was epidemic on the show’s set.» —“DVD Review: ‘Extras, Season Two’” by Rick Porter Zap2it July 10, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
A listener named Tami contacted the show by WhatsApp to say that whenever someone would be talking about a subject that nobody else knew anything about, her father-in-law would respond with I had one of those, but the wheels came off. This is part...
A Montana farmer says his dad used to warn against catching the epizooty. In 1872, an epizootic respiratory disease among horses nearly brought the United States to a standstill. The word epizootic is modeled on the Greek word epidemic, from Greek...
This word has a long-ish tradition in the British entertainment media ; it certainly goes back 50 years , and quite possibly much more .
I am not able to offer a derivation , although historically an actor was often said to have “died on stage”.
A very good example of corpsing on TV can be seen in old Peter Cook & Dudley Moore sketches from , I guess , the first half of the 1960’s .