In The Joker (2019), Joaquin Phoenix’s character Arthur Fleck could not stop laughing. The reason for his uncontrolled laughter was never really explained in the movie.

Laughter is almost always fear. It is a vent.

Arthur was venting fear. Laughing is a coping mechanism, or a response to a perceived threat. But when we vent fear, we also release the pressure that might have forced us to face it. We survive the moment, but we forgo our ability to overcome the thing we just vented away.

That is the trade. Laughter protects us from the full weight of fear. But sometimes the full weight of fear is exactly what we needed to feel in order to transform it.

If you ask me, laughter is one of the kindest expressions of fear. Anger and hate are the least kind. Laughter still tries to soften the moment. Anger hardens it. Hate breaks it.

The next time you laugh, ask yourself the following.

Was I laughing from fear, or laughing from love?

It’s one or the other. It’s not a spectrum. It’s a switch.

Laughter from fear closes you. Laughter from love opens you.

One protects. The other connects.