"Readers who saw my previous post will recall its focus on a recurring pattern of laughter and humor found during my deep dive into the humor of the Seinfeld series. I wondered why we tend to laugh at various things going into our bodies and tried to explain why we might be so inclined using the Mutual Vulnerability Theory of Laughter."
"The Mutual Vulnerability Theory holds that amusement is fundamentally the desire to affirm a sense of shared or mutual vulnerability. Yes, at lower intensities, it can be expressed with a smile, but above a certain threshold intensity, amusement's most definitive outward expression is that of laughter. (Newcomers can find a more complete description of the theory in my very first post linked here, and a universal definition of humor in another post here.)"
Humor frequently references bodily eliminations such as mucus, body odors, and excretions, which can signal illness or threaten others' health. Physical vulnerabilities tied to these functions often trigger laughter, especially when subjects are deserving of sympathy. The Mutual Vulnerability Theory posits amusement stems from affirming shared vulnerability; low-intensity amusement appears as a smile, while stronger amusement produces laughter. Seinfeld exemplified this pattern through recurring physical and bodily-function humor, including slips, falls, injuries, illnesses, and social repercussions. Such material links basic animal functions to social dynamics of empathy, threat assessment, and collective emotional responses.
Read at Psychology Today
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