h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The threat of injury or the act of being injured that turns out to be slighter than imagined invoke relief.
Laughter is an emotional response triggered by gratitude that one is not in the place of the point of the joke or situation.
Subjectivity is required for empathy.
Of course there is also the laughter of delight, which carrys the threat that one is doing or thinking about doing something naughty.
Absurdity can encompass both kinds of laughter.
But basically there has to be a sense that one is either getting away with something one oughtened to, or a sense of relief that something untoward is not happening.
There was a spate of 'Black Humor' after WWII that came from a sense of relief that one was not deaded. Or that one did not have to see, hear or feel the things that one had just lived through.
Humor is in a strange place right now.
One can go on stage or screen and say or do just about anything.
So what is funny gone from the threat to the promise. You can see anything that earlier would have only been suggested in whispers.
And the shock wears off.
The funniest thing I've seen in years was an item in the current Avon catalog. It is fake straps for women who are wearing strapless bras.
Here is the text from the catalog:
It's chic to show a peek of strap.
NEW Decorative Bra Straps: Add even more allure to Avon's popular strapless bra-or any bra with a removable strap.
One set is clear palstic, one set metallic gold nylon/spandex.
Hand wash. Imported. Adjusts for all sizes.
duhhhhhh....ummmmmm.....