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The Chafetz Chaim in his preface seems to address all your questions (and then some!). While the entire preface (and book) is well written (not that it needs my approbation!), I will try to quote some of the relevant bits that more directly address your questions.
Does anyone know of good sources for Hilchos Lashon Hora from before the Chofetz Chaim?
Other ...
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R Avrohom Ehrman, writing in his book The laws of interpersonal relationships, explicitly addresses your case and calls it leitzanut (mockery). Based on Rabbeinu Yonah in Shaarei Teshuva, he describes five categories of leitzanut.
The fifth category [and less grave] involves making fun of people or their behavior
simply for the sake of amusement, even if it ...
3
Moshe thought they all spoke lashon hara.. but really it was only Dasan and Aviram.
The rest of klal Yisrael didn't.
(Kli Yakar Shemos 2:14)
1
Statements such as "he just got into a car accident" are forbidden. especially if they suggest the driver might not have been careful, either
because they are lashon hara per se which amongst its many categories has "any statement that belittles a fellow Jew" and "statements that can cause embarrassment"
or because they are ...
1
From Wikipedia:
The designation "Rabbah" was first applied to the midrash to Genesis, and then applied to the midrashim to the other books of the Pentateuch (Vayikra Rabbah, Shemot Rabbah, etc.) which were copied, with Bereshit Rabbah, even in (later) manuscripts. This collection eventually came to be called "Midrash Rabbot" (i.e., "...
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