Texas mother Candace Payne has struck a chord with Facebook users, breaking one of the website’s video records by laughing uncontrollably in a Chewbacca mask.

Ms Payne filmed herself in real time on Friday (Australian time) trying on the Star Wars-themed mask in the parking lot of a local department store in the US city of Dallas.

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By Saturday night, the Facebook Live video had been viewed more than 88 million times, making it the most popular Live video of all time. It was also liked more than 1.5 million times and shared more than 2.3 million times.

“That’s just crazy,” Mrs Payne told the BBC. “I’m just laughing – in all honesty, that is ridiculous. I’ve looked at the number of views and it just seems like someone is just playing with a calculator.”

It was the woman’s infectious, hysterical laughter that seemed to propel its popularity.

Once she fitted the Chewbacca mask, Mrs Payne simply could not stop — and every time she opened her mouth, the mask made Chewbacca’s famous roaring sound, triggering even more laughter.

Facebook Live is a relatively new feature that allows users to broadcast live to the social media website.

The previous Facebook Live record holder was Buzzfeed‘s live exploding of a watermelon.