Yeah, that is an interesting one.  In fact, it may have a multitude of senses and meanings, a pratical joke (as far as I know, is "uma piada"), so depending on the

situation the guy was laughing about himself, that is, a guy that can take a (maybe bad)

joke lightly.

   You know, sometimes we do badly at something and in the very last it wasn´t so bad as we initially tought! maybe it was for our advantage and improving indeed.