I don’t like to brag, but I can make someone laugh without doing a thing—not a peep uttered, not a word spoken, not a muscle moved. Absolutely nothing. Of course, you and everyone else can as well. In fact, it happens more often than you think.
I’ve spent many a post relating the numerous strengths of a new theory to explain why we laugh. The mutual vulnerability theory holds that laughter is a form of conscious, nonverbal communication, one that reminds others that we, they, and indeed everyone, possess certain shortcomings and limitations. It happens when we demonstrate a (usually) minor imperfection or when someone else does. Or when someone verbally highlights their own or someone else’s imperfection. And it can even be the result of an exceptionally favorable trait being exposed, such that the vulnerability of others is laid bare by comparison.
These are the jokes, jibes, and clever riddles we are all so familiar with, and there are the tickles, chases, and pratfalls we relish during play. The vast majority of the time, amusement comes as a result of things we say or do.
But not always. Among the many strengths of the mutual vulnerability theory is its ability to explain the exceptions as well as the rule. In this case, those occasions when it depends not on what’s said or done but rather on what doesn’t happen that we think should: the witty comeback one just can’t articulate,........