"You laugh now but it wouldn't be funny if it happened to you!"
Yes, it would be funny. It just probably wouldn't amuse ME. I laugh at people's suffering even when I've experienced firsthand what they went through.
If I laugh at someone's misery, it doesn't mean I lack experience or empathy. It means I found it funny. As an individual, OF COURSE I'm gonna relate to the experience differently when it happens to someone else than if it happens to me. Btw I think I mentioned before that I'm a sadist. Indulging in another's pain the way I do requires an abundance of empathy. I know how the person feels. I understand it. I'm capable of experience those emotions (perhaps not under the same circumstances as them because again; individual) & can usually recognize them in another person. Though not always because there's nothing EVERYONE feels/reacts the same way about.
I exploit my own empathy for my own pleasure. Just like you do you when you make your friends laugh. About things that are, y'know, FUNNY TO THEM.