Record a laugh about foreign character (5)
I believe the answer is:
alpha
'foreign character' is the definition.
(letter of the Greek alphabet)
'record a laugh about' is the wordplay.
'record' becomes 'L-P' (abbreviation for long play record).
'laugh' becomes 'ha'.
'about' is an insertion indicator.
'a'+'ha'='aha'
'lp' going inside 'aha' is 'ALPHA'.
(Other definitions for alpha that I've seen before include "Brightest star" , "European character" , "piece of Greek writing" , "First-rate" , "Dominant" .)