Humour can genuinely change how a difficult moment actually feels. A stressful situation seems lighter once someone finds a reason to laugh, and a serious problem often becomes easier to approach once it can be seen from another angle. It can create a little distance from fear, frustration and uncertainty, even when the circumstances themselves have not changed. Michael J. Fox, the actor and Parkinson's disease advocate, put a striking twist on that idea. "I think the scariest person in the world is the person with no sense of humor," he said. Not being able to laugh, in his framing, is not simply a personality quirk. It genuinely limits how someone can respond to life, and coming from someone who has lived with a serious, lifelong illness for decades, the line carries a good deal more weight than a passing joke.
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