The soft power aspect of jokes, who laughs at what, and when is fascinating. There is even some research on it: From https://www.thehrobserver.com/indepth/laug

The soft power aspect of jokes, who laughs at what, and when is fascinating. There is even some research on it: From https://www.thehrobserver.com/indepth/laughing-at-the-bosss-jokes-the-hidden-strain-on-employees/ https://www.thehrobserver.com/indepth/laughing-at-the-bosss-... >You mentioned that humour and power is intertwined – what is the social impact of this? >If a boss is trying to be funny, they are automatically trying to get a response, so the use of humour is never neutral or irrelevant. People have a split second to decide whether or not to fake a laugh, or even how much to laugh – trying to figure out if the boss thinks a particular joke is a little funny or a lot funny. At the same time, they are trying to decide what the consequences of not laughing might be. original paper https://journals.aom.org/doi/abs/10.5465/amj.2022.0195 https://journals.aom.org/doi/abs/10.5465/amj.2022.0195