72 Mildly Amusing Pics That May Improve The Mood

Not all humor is made equal. Nor does it have the same effect on your mental and emotional health.

According to recent research, there are eight comic styles (namely fun, humor, nonsense, wit, irony, satire, sarcasm, and cynicism) which can be subdivided into lighter or darker styles.

They differ in terms of their intention and goal, object, attitude toward the agent, behavior toward other people, ideal audience, method, and linguistic peculiarities.

The four lighter comic styles, which are more benign and benevolent, include:

1. Fun, which aims to spread good mood and companionship
2. Humor, which aims to create sympathy and discover discrepancies in everyday situations
3. Nonsense, which experiments with ridiculousness, contradictions, and absurdities
4. Wit, which creates clever connections between ideas and thoughts

Meanwhile, the four darker comic styles, mostly based on mockery and ridicule, include:

1. Irony, which contrasts expectations and reality, with a focus on stating things in opposition to their meaning
2. Satire, which criticizes wrongdoings, shortcomings, misconduct,e tc., for the sake of correcting others and improving the world
3. Sarcasm, which criticizes and ridicules people, institutions, or topics
4. Cynicism, which ridicules common values, weaknesses, and moral concepts

Benign humor tends to play a protective role when it comes to depression, anxiety, and stress. In other words, if you embrace this lighter comic style, you are, essentially, shielding yourself and others from these three negative things.

Meanwhile, research has shown that irony actually increases anxiety and stress.

If you’re a fan of wit, the good news is that it protects you from anxiety. However, at the same time, it doesn’t protect you from depression or stress.

In the meantime, using sarcasm can actually lead to worsening depression.

So, in a nutshell, if you want to improve your and others’ mental and emotional well-being, it’s best that you embrace the lighter—rather than the darker—comic styles. In short, as fun as irony and sarcasm can be from time to time, they lead to more emotional distress.

Broadly speaking, humor as a whole is a fantastic coping mechanism because it can reduce the negative effects of the stress you experience. That’s on top of the fact that laughter can help you connect with other people, can boost your immune system, and gives your body a mild workout.

That being said, you have to remember that some types of humor can do more harm than good in the wrong circumstances. You do not have to brutally put someone down just to make yourself feel better. Rather, you can create win-win situations with your comedy. And a lot depends on your audience and the type of humor it prefers.

Aside from reducing stress and anxiety, humor can also help you relieve tension, improve your body’s recovery rates, and improve communication with other people.

On the other hand, when used incorrectly, humor can lead to discomfort and damage your relationships with others, including at work.

For instance, aggressive humor, which relies on teasing others, while it does have its niche, is likely to be socially harmful and received poorly, PsychCentral warns.

The ‘Mildly Amusing’ online community has been around for an incredibly long time. Founded more than 14 years ago, back in January 2012, the group continues to gently amuse and intrigue people with the lightly interesting sights internet users see going about their daily lives.

At the time of writing, the community gets 15k visitors every week, who are in the mood for some mild entertainment.

We’d love for you to join the discussion in the comments once you’ve upvoted your favorite pics.

Which of these pics did you mildly enjoy, and which ones did you find wildly interesting, and why? On the flip side, which ones were a bit too ‘meh’ and needed more ‘hehe’?

What’s the most mildly amusing thing that you’ve recently spotted or taken a photo of? Let us know.

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