howler

a real howler

1. A mistake, error, or blunder that causes great laughter at the expense of the person who commits it, i.e., one that results in "howling" laughter. Do you remember when John actually slipped on a banana peel? That was a real howler.
2. An extremely funny joke, anecdote, or remark that results in "howling" laughter. Boy, Jerry sure knows some real howlers. I thought my sides were going to split I was laughing so hard.
See also: howler, real
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

howler

n. a serious and obvious mistake; a funny error. Who is responsible for this howler on the Wilson account?
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions
See also:
  • a real howler
  • howl with laughter
  • fall about with laughter
  • shake with laughter
  • shake with laughter, to
  • gales of laughter
  • be a howling success
  • howling
  • howling success
  • in fits
References in periodicals archive
Because these Pavarottis of the howler monkey world had less trouble attracting and creating an exclusive harem of females, they tended to have smaller testicles.
Scouring collections at museums and zoos in the United States and Europe, the team used laser scanners to create 3-D models of hyoids from nine howler species.
As in African cercopithecines (Papio, Cercopi- thecus) (Detwiler et al., 2005), anthropogenic habitat fragmentation may increase the incidence of hybridization in howler monkeys, because the confinement of a few individuals in small fragments can reduce the chances of finding conspecific partners, which can lead to more frequent contact with groups of other species, and to interspecific crosses (Dias et al., 2013).
Emma Milburn was good enough to win the howler throw with 15.20m, with Toni Brazukas third with 14.12m.
Designed to challenge traditional deal delivery services, Howler brings deals to the consumer through geolocation rather than leaving the consumer to search for and then travel to the discounted meal, service or product.
The howler monkey study was part of Kelaita's doctoral dissertation work at U-M's Department of Anthropology.
"Howlers," Jim Puder points out--"are unintended misstatements in speech or writing which for some reason are quite funny--seem to me to come in two varieties.
There may not be anything wildly new in Howler's nevertheless impressive armoury but they do what they do incredibly well.
Casey said: "'Howler' is No 1 on the Order of Merit and he's showed why on the first couple of days - he has played some terrific golf and all credit to him.
Hiking all day through the rainforest of southern Costa Rica to a tropical research station is another recent experience, when the beauty of the forest combined with the startling and eerie sounds of the forest like howler monkeys, and the raucous call of red macaws.
Both are derived from what are known as beans, and both are traditionally grown in the shady understory of tropical rainforests, sharing their homes with a plethora of wildlife, from howler monkeys to parrots.
Remember, that was the night Paul Scholes had a perfectly good goal disallowed for Manchester United before Mourinho's Porto sneaked a late winner at Old Trafford thanks to a howler from Red Devils goalie Tim Howard.
Michael Rosen's Howler (158-2348510, $15.95) is the perfect companion to ROVER, presenting a hilarious story of a puzzled dog trying to understand a new baby in the house.
At 1-0 down and with the introduction of Robert the game was there to be won ( until O'Brien's howler! ( M ICON, Daisy Hill.