And what is essential to the joke is just this element of distraction. Comedy runs on misdirection and surprise. To the extent that philosophers have bothered with theorising about humour the following is the closest to a consensus view: that amusement is the pleasurable recognition of thwarted expectations. You expect things to go one way, they end up going another, either through Providence or (in the case of a joke) by the design of humans. In certain contexts, this is pleasant.
https://countrysquire.co.uk/2024/10/04/why-the-left-hates-laughter/
Chesterton reminds us:
“Laughter…unfreezes pride and unwinds secrecy; it makes people forget themselves in the presence of something greater than themselves.”
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