Most people have a sense of humor. However, their social anxiety, fear of judgment and self-imposed mental filters suppress their humor. They are worried what they say may not be good enough, or that they will be judged. Once these barriers are removed, their humor will often reveal itself naturally.

Humor signals a lot about the underlying character of a person. A person who makes certain jokes displays both confidence and a willingness to take risks. By telling a joke you can run the risk of embarrassing yourself by saying something that is either unfunny or too out of line. The ability to successfully take and manage risks is an attractive trait. Even in the cases where a joke is not well received, one can still somewhat redeem themselves by appearing self-secure and thus unfazed by the opinions of others.

By telling a joke, you put yourself out there and make yourself vulnerable. The attractive version of vulnerability is not being weak or soft, but rather that you are strong enough to deal with the repercussions that may result from exposing your true self.

Being at ease and willing to joke around communicates that you are relaxed and comfortable in your current environment. A trait of a high status individual.

Such behavior implies that a person has either a high level of acceptance in an environment or is so confident in their abilities, that they don’t seem at all threatened. Evolutionarily, think of how a leader would act while surrounded by his tribe and on his own turf. Or how a great warrior would act when surrounded by those he does not find threatening. All else being equal, such people would appear relaxed and comfortable.

Humor can also be useful to verbally disarm or nullify other people’s remarks. If a person is trying to test your resolve and confidence, or is straight out attacking you with criticism or ridicule, humor can sometimes be used to deflect their attacks.

If it appears that you don’t take a person or their remarks seriously, even to the extent that their statements border on being humorous to you, then you deprive their words of clout.

However, if rather than of laughing off their remarks, you instead appear hurt, angered or embarrassed by them, then it reveals that they succeeded in getting under your skin, and diminishes your status in the eyes of others.

If someone points out a fault that they think you may be self-conscious about (being short, bald, poor, etc.), but you can joke about it and laugh it off, it shows a high level of self-confidence.

When you accept a flaw and remain confident despite it, more attraction and/or respect can be generated than if you lacked the so called flaw altogether.

To have good comedic timing in a conversation, you must be present in the current moment and not stuck in your head worrying about what to say next. If a person is living fully in the current moment, then it’s less likely that they are acting in order to achieve some future hidden objective. Thus one come’s off as being more authentic and honest, which helps build connection and trust.

Similarly, communicating with some levity makes it seem like you don’t have such a strict agenda and are only focused on a singular outcome.

Especially when it comes to flirting, humor allows one to hint at intention in a playful way while simultaneously not directly stating a desired outcome. It allows for one to play with a notion without coming on to strong.

And lastly the obvious, humor is fun and can demonstrate a high intellect.

Link to Full Video: https://youtu.be/KUov9yRdZQA