I believe Robert A. Heinlein's take on it: from Stranger in a Strange Land, "you laugh because it hurts", either yourself or someone else, and laughter helps us separate ourselves from the empathetic pain wed feel if we understood instead of laughing.
I believe Robert A. Heinlein's take on it: from Stranger in a Strange Land, "you laugh because it hurts", either yourself or someone else, and laughter helps us separate ourselves from the empathetic pain wed feel if we understood instead of laughing.