When there is laughter and a sense of community in a team, it often leads to an idea of a happy and well-working team. But that might just as well be a misunderstanding. What is on display is a team that found a way to establish a sense of community, but it doesn’t say what this sense of community is for nor what the laughter is assisting the team with.

Among many things, humor is also a valve that allows to release pressure and dissipate tension.

For example, jokes that work well often start with establishing tension or relate the story to a tension everyone knows. Once the tension is present, it will be released by the punch line.

But not everyone has the same sense of humor, nor does every situation that is taken with humor lead to spontaneous laughter. Gallows humor is known to be grim. Sarcasm or irony, for example, will often feel like a status fight. That is one where the person who laughs will often be the one putting others down. In these situations, humor can feel aggressive. Self-depreciating type of humor invites others to laugh with oneself, but its purpose is to keep others at a distance to avoid being criticized by them.

These are all situations in which humor will reduce an existing tension or release felt pressure. Situations that often will feel so familiar that one will not notice more than the laughs and, in contrast to emotions like sadness or anger, joy will seem to be a “good” emotion. Seen within the social context, this means that humor won’t be questioned as easily as other emotions. The same is true for the sense of community or familiarity that such a team seems to have.

But a team that seeks to huddle or that builds its performance on familiarity, may not be at optimal performance. They might be using humor as a way to distract everyone from the otherwise present pressure most team members cope with.

It can be experienced through a sense of at least slightly displaced laughter. As if instead of generating a full-hearted and spontaneous laughter, there was a need to take a bit more time to realize that humor has been used.