I was intrigued to the phrase, ‘the argument doesn’t pass even the laugh test’ in the following statement of Bruce Schneier, a security technologist on the debate about whether Edward J. Snowden who leaked NSA's surveillance programs is a whistle blower or criminal in the Opinion Page of June 11 New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/06/11/in-nsa-leak-case-a-whistle-blower-or-a-criminal/before-prosecuting-snowden-investigate-the-government):
“Keeping things secret from the people is a very dangerous practice in
a democracy, and the government is permitted to do so only under very
specific circumstances. Reading the documents leaked so far, I don't
see anything that needs to be kept secret. The argument that exposing
these documents helps the terrorists doesn't even pass the laugh test;
there's nothing here that changes anything any potential terrorist
would do or not do. “
I wonder whether the phrase, “the argument doesn't even pass the laugh test” can be an idiomatic phrase, or just an ad-hoc expression, though I think it’s too early to count it as an idiom, or idiomatic expression in light of the relative recency of the word, ‘laugh test.’
According to Google Ngram, the word emerged only in circ 1980, although the incidences of use have been on a sharp rise. At present, none of Cambridge, Oxford, and Merriam-Webster English online dictionaries registers ‘laugh test.’
Can I say “Your idea (invention / rhetoric / logic) doesn’t even pass the laugh test” – I know it’s offensive – as a quip in conversation, and be understood by my people, or is it safer to stop short of using such a phrase?
As the disclaimer in advance, I would like to add that my question only regards the usage of the phrase in question, and has nothing to do with the pro and con of the political argument on the leak case.
Best Answer
Summarising and amplifying the comments thus far, the earliest usage I can find is a 1985 Supreme Court usage...
For several years after that, almost all instances in Google Books seem to be in legal contexts. Interestingly, the straight face test predates it by several decades (that link has one from 1956).
In practice it does effectively mean this is laughable. Given the origins are so clearly associated with legal circles, I prefer to see it as implying this would be laughed out of court (if it ever got that far). But as StoneyB says, you can also see it as so laughable you couldn't say it with a straight face.
Any strong dismissal of someone else's point is bound to be "offensive", but arguably this particular one introduces a touch of self-referential levity (from the point of view of third-party onlookers, not the person whose position is being so derisively "laughed off").
Anyway, over 3000 written instances of pass the laugh test show that it's not at all uncommon.