Crossword Genius

Team spilling the beans is hilarious (4-9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

side-splitting

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'hilarious' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'team spilling the beans' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'team' could be 'side' (both can mean a sports team) and 'side' is found in the answer.
'the' could be 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects) and 't' is located in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

'is' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for side-splitting that I've seen before include "Producing great mirth" , "Extremely funny" , "Hilarious" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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