Although ending a joke by explaining it is not the best course of action, psychologists have nonetheless tried it. There are three main theories as to what humor is and where it came from. According to the relief hypothesis, laughing and finding humor are good ways to let off steam and release psychological energy. As a result, jokes told during funerals are sometimes met with boisterous laughter rather than the reverent silence that such a serious occasion would require. In order to explain a particular form of humor—why we laugh at other people’s tragedies—Plato and Aristotle initially established a superiority theory. This notion allows for the use of humor to demonstrate one’s superiority over others. If you want to improve your leadership skills, this is not the kind of sense of humor you should cultivate. The incongruity theory says that humor happens when two completely different, separate ideas are put together. Humorous punctuations typically go against the grain and involve an unanticipated turn of events. Laughing is one of the healthiest things you can do for your health. It’s almost like your mind has a protection mechanism called a sense of humor. People who are at high risk for depression regularly go through depressive episodes after being exposed to specific kinds of negative stimuli, and later on, it becomes easier for them to relapse. But turning a negative experience into something funny acts as a kind of emotional filter that prevents the negativity from sparking a depressive episode. Humor guards against more than just hopelessness. Additionally, it improves people’s overall standard of living. But not all humour is created equal. The researchers in the same study divided humor into four groups: Affiliative humor, or comedy used to build relationships with others, self-enhancing humor, or having a humorous outlook on life in general, aggressive humor, or making fun of other people, and self-defeating humor, when a person promotes jokes that are self-deprecating or make fun of themselves.
