About this quote

Humor often acts as a thin mask for pain. When you laugh at a messy situation, you are usually finding a way to cope with a harsh truth. If you pause and peel back the comedy, you find the raw frustration that triggered the joke in the first place. Think about the last time you joked about your worst failure. It pays to look closely at what you laugh off, because that is usually where your real work lies.

When to use it

• A software developer laughing with colleagues about a disastrous product launch, only to realize the joke covers up deep anxiety about losing their job.
• A person telling a funny story at a family dinner about how chaotic their childhood was, but slowly realizing the neglect they survived was not actually funny.
• An athlete joking about their chronic knee injury to teammates, masking a quiet dread that their playing days are coming to an end.