I just say it’s either funny or it isn’t.

Humor is an authentication mechanism. It’s either funny or it isn’t, and that binary signal is the whole point of humor. It’s an indicator people are on the same page or they aren’t.

I’m not kidding. Humor is a test. You don’t ask “why wasn’t that password the right one?”. The password was either a match or it wasn’t.

Once you understand the social function of humor, the question “why is that funny?” becomes bunk.