@dubstepped - you are dead on as far as "courtesy laughter"; but a quick counterpoint to your point on CO sports:
Around 2000 we had a CO -- Bill Adams -- who was over 6ft and liked to play basketball. At the time, we had been playing b-ball at the local court pretty frequently, and when he found out, he wanted in. So we meet up, form teams and start playing. . . and of course everyone is tripping around the CO like he's Jesus or something. But he starts getting aggressive -- really aggressive! -- and scoring tons of points. So we actually let him have it -- enough of that! I might be misremembering this, but I believe it was at that game that one of the other elders playing got his nose broken (not by the CO).