Her Maj put on crown for a bit of a laugh (5)

I believe the answer is:

caper

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'a laugh' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'her maj put on crown' is the wordplay.
'her maj' becomes 'ER' (Elizabeth Regina ie Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth).
'put on' says to put letters next to each other.
'crown' becomes 'cap' (synonyms).
'er' after 'cap' is 'CAPER'.

'for a bit of' is the link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for caper that I've seen before include "Ridiculous escapade" , "The Italian Job, perhaps" , "One likely to get pickled" , "practical joke" , "Antic, prank" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.

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