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Hi Bouty Hunter,
Do you use it on someone with somewhat a negative connotation?
I don't think so. It's just uninhibited laughter.- in BE, at least. In some contexts, though, it could be used to indicate mechanistic or heartless or humourless laughter, but other words in the context would be involved:
They weren't listening to their leader's words, but laughing dutifully - like hyenas - whenever his intonation suggested the end of a 'joke'.
laugh like a hyena 
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