I've heard of "laser printers" and I've heard of "laser JET printers". What are the differences between the two? Anybody actually KNOW?

Laserjet is used by Hewlett Packard for their range of laser printers. SO, same thing, just a matter of branding.

 Deskjet is how they usually refer to their inkjet printers.

A laser and a laserjet printer are both the same thing. The term Laserjet was used as a model name as well as Inkjet. Laser uses powder based ink and a fuser module that heats the page and powder which fuses the powder ink to the paper. Ink printers use liquid ink which is sprayed onto the paper via a print head. It moves up and down the page horizontally to print the information on the page.

simply it does no matter both are same when you hear  laser printer or laserjet  all r same just try to find best model for your job 

Laser Jet is just a brand name HP uses to label their make of laser printers, so they are laser printers.

The difference you likely to ask for is laser vs. ink, laser is Xerography, as in the brand name for a major copier firm and Greek word. Ink prints by squirting that complex chemical ink you bought for like 20x of a pack of pen.

Laserjet is a trade name

"laserjet" is a trademark of Hewlett Packard

which was trying to utilize the renown of the name of its (or the) existing inkjet line.

So:

a laserjet printer is just a laser printer produced by HP.

There are no actual laser jets in a laserjet printer.

If you buy a Brother laser printer for about $130, you can get a 3,000 page toner for about  $25. If you buy an HP laserjet for about $200, be prepared to pay $50 and up for a 1500 page toner. Other than that, they are the same. The other companies' motto is "We're #2 so we try harder" while HP's is "We're #1 so we can rip off people who haven't figure out what we're doing."

Same thing.  Just a brand name HP is using.

I believe, though without looking into any further than what I took from intermittent research for purchasing decisions for home/office printers over several decades...

Laser printers are a technology description. Fusing a toner to paper using a laser or other bright and focussed light source (e.g. LEDs). Not all laser printers have an actual laser source inside them.

Laserjet is a brandname and trademark of HP. It refers to a small home/office printer aimed to compete for price/convenience with the inkjets which are the main alternative. A higher initial price, but vastly cheaper running costs than the traditional inkjet, offset against the maximum quality of photo prints on dedicated glossy papers. Not used by HP as far as I ever saw for their 'department' printers, only for desktop/workgroup printers.

The balance of affordability/convenience is slightly complicated with the recent mainstream and retail introduction of 'bulk ink' inkjet printers such as the Epson ET**** series, which produce colour prints much more inexpensively than even lasers (for 'typical' scenes) due to a 70-80ml ink bottle for around the same price as a '5-8ml' ink cartridge of the equivalent standard inkjet printer.

I currently run an Epson ET inkjet, and the major component of my printing costs is currently the paper on which I am printing. (For duplex prints, something a bit heavier than 80gsm is preferable, and this costs a little more than the cheapest copy paper.

Laser Jet is HP's name for their laser printer line, just different name for same thing.