According to science:

Humans likely inherited their ability to laugh from apes, British researchers studying primate evolution said.

Laughter follows an evolutionary trail that could date back as far as 16 million years, said Marina Davila Ross, who led the study at the University of Portsmouth.

Laughter likely began as the “grunt-like” noises heard when gorillas, chimpanzees and orangutans are tickled and evolved into the higher-pitched laughter heard in humans, Ross’ team reported in the journal of Current Biology.

Read the rest here.