Humor is the Glue of Online Communities?

That's what this article from the guardian claims. Interesting.

There's obviously something pretty powerful about humor and this might explain some of it.

Here's a quote:

"It's not surprising that so much of online content is comedy; the library of psychological and anthropological research describes humour as the glue that helps to define communities and keep them together. Psychologist Dr Rod Martin, who has published extensively on the role of humour in mental and physical health, describes it as a coping mechanism: we seek to clarify a unified reality through our interpersonal communications, but when that unified reality isn't forthcoming – because we inevitably look at the world through different frames of reference and have different interpretations of what's happening around us – we poke fun at our inconsistencies, which allows us to smooth them over because we are able to embrace the contradictions."

So maybe we should begin recruiting comedians for our diplomatic posts, sending our funniest to Middle East peace negotiations. Worth a shot? Why not.