The use of humor in conflict

    Conflict is something that people in all types of relationships frequently come across on a daily basis. When they are faced with it, they tend to manage it in a wide variety of ways. Some ways may of course be more effective than others depending on the conflict, the type of relationship, and the people involved in it. One way that people manage conflict is by using humor. Humor when used during conflicts can commonly be seen as something that can help to reduce the strength of a conflict since it might help the people involved feel better and it might additionally be a helpful way to get people to see a different side of things.

    To see how humor can be used to manage conflict I have included a clip below from the movie Purple Hearts. The clip at the start displays two characters named Luke and Cassie. Luke in the beginning was practicing how to walk given that he had recently suffered an injury, while Cassie was waiting for him to finish. As she waits for him, she compliments him for doing a lot better and at this point Luke seems like he is in a good mood. His mood, however, soon shifts when they are joined by his brother Jacob since he finds out that Cassie and Jacob got a dog for him without consulting him. The shift in his mood further gives rise to a conflict since he sternly tells them that he does not need them to sneakily plan things behind his back. When telling them this his voice gets serious and comes off as aggressive, which then makes Cassie get serious and additionally pushes her to aggressively give Luke the dog's leash. Once Luke takes the leash, he refers to himself as a cripple, angrily throws the leash, and firmly states that he is capable of making his own choices. After this Cassie tries to prevent the conflict from escalating further by using humor to jokingly say that people do not say the word cripple anymore and by trying to convince Luke that it is okay to get help. However, she also uses humor once the dog fetches the leash that Luke threw since she tells Luke that even the dog understands that it is okay to get help. Then once Luke surrenders and decides to keep the dog Cassie and Jacob both end up using humor by laughing about successfully convincing him to keep it.

    Upon further consideration the clip in all shows how people can manage conflict with humor. The clip more specifically shows the beneficial side of integrating humor into a conflict since it shows how humor can lighten up an overall conflict situation. One, however, should be cautious when using humor during such tense situations since the situations could potentially get worse.