I think--if one may say it with all respect--that in English society
girls and women are especially prone to narrate these personal
experiences as contributions to general merriment rather than the
men. The English girl has a sort of traditional idea of being
amusing; the English man cares less about it. He prefers facts to
fancy every time, and as a rule is free from that desire to pose as a
humourist which haunts the American mind. So it comes about that most
of the "screamingly funny" stories are told in English society by the
women. Thus the counterpart of "put me off at Buffalo" done into
English would be something like this: "We were so amused the other
night in the sleeping-car going to Buffalo. There was the most
amusing old negro making the beds, a perfect scream, you know, and he
kept insisting that if we wanted to get up at Buffalo we must all go
to bed at nine o'clock. He positively wouldn't let us sit up--I mean
to say it was killing the way he wanted to put us to bed. We all
roared !"

Please note that roar at the end of the English personal anecdote.
It is the sign that indicates that the story is over. When you are
assured by the narrators that all the persons present "roared" or
"simply roared," then you can be quite sure that the humorous
incident is closed and that laughter is in place.

Now, as a matter of fact, the scene with the darky porter may have
been, when it really happened, most amusing. But not a trace of it
gets over in the story. There is nothing but the bare assertion
that it was "screamingly funny" or "simply killing." But the English
are such an honest people that when they say this sort of thing
they believe one another and they laugh.