Sich kaputtlachen

How do people use Sich kaputtlachen?

Colloquial and very common, from the playground to the office kitchen. It’s reflexive, so the “sich” changes with the person: “ich lach mich kaputt”, “wir haben uns kaputtgelacht”. “Ich lach mich kaputt!” on its own is also a sarcastic reply to a joke that isn’t funny at all.

Also said sich totlachen, sich schieflachen

Sich kaputtlachen in real sentences

• Die Geschichte war so drollig, ich habe mich kaputtgelacht.

  The story was so funny that I split my sides.

  Tatoeba, sentence by Dejo, translation by Dejo, CC BY 2.0 FR

• Die Schüler haben sich über Toms Witz kaputtgelacht.

  The students laughed their heads off at Tom’s joke.

  Tatoeba, sentence by MisterTrouser, translation by megamanenm, CC BY 2.0 FR

Where does Sich kaputtlachen come from?

The verb is simply kaputt (broken) plus lachen, and German Wiktionary has no date for when the two were joined. Kaputt itself has a better-documented story: German Wiktionary, citing Duden and Pfeifer, traces it to the Thirty Years’ War phrase “caput machen”, borrowed from French card-game talk where “être capot” meant losing every trick. So laughing yourself kaputt is, in a roundabout way, laughing until you’ve lost the game.

Mistakes learners make with Sich kaputtlachen

Leaving out the “sich”: “Ich habe kaputtgelacht” is broken German, while “Ich habe mich kaputtgelacht” is right. What you laugh at takes “über”: “sich über einen Witz kaputtlachen”.

Other German idioms like Sich kaputtlachen

• sich einen Ast lachen (to laugh yourself a hunchback)
• sich scheckig lachen (to laugh yourself piebald)
• sich kringeln (to curl up)
• sich biegen vor Lachen (to bend over with laughter)
• vor Lachen platzen (to burst with laughter)