I haven't read, yet, but I see that laughter is mentioned. I've thought of laughter as a means of turning weakness into social strength. As an exercise/observ

I haven't read, yet, but I see that laughter is mentioned. I've thought of laughter as a means of turning weakness into social strength. As an exercise/observation, I can divide this into two categories (without claiming any sort of authoritative definition/categorization): 1) Laughing with someone / a "victim": Expressing social support, thereby turning the "weakness", the cause of the humor, into a strength. 2) Laughing at someone: A form of segregation, strengthening the group laughing while ostracizing the weakened victim. I've observed what seems to me to be a major uptick in 2) in U.S. culture during the past decade plus, which I don't enjoy. For example, I can no longer watch much of "Saturday Night Live", as most of the skits appear to be based in 2). I find it very malicious and not at all funny; rather, it makes me more than a bit queasy, when not angry.