This is Part 1 of a series.

Over the past few decades, and the past four-plus years especially, I’ve made mental notes on tens of thousands of examples of amusing content, from sitcoms, movies, standup routines, online videos, physical play, practical jokes, amusing signs—virtually every way in which laughter is inspired. I was reminded of a certain recurring pattern while working on my next book, a deep dive into the humor of the Seinfeld series. That is, why do we so often laugh at the process of placing various things into our bodies, as well as expelling various things out of our bodies? And, more importantly, how might the Mutual Vulnerability Theory account for such a pattern?

As the name suggests, the Mutual Vulnerability Theory promotes the central premise that amusement is the desire to affirm a sense of shared, or mutual, vulnerability. Although at lower intensities it can be expressed with smiles, 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 first post linked here.)

So, can we see some connection with these basic “animal” functions we all perform daily with the concept of vulnerability? I’ll focus this blog post on some of the things we bring into our bodies.

It should come as no surprise that we all need to take certain substances into our bodies. We........

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