Episode 68: Humor in Hard Times | Staying Human When Everything Feels Heavy with Kathy Klotz-Guest
Episode Snapshot:
Humor isn’t a punchline — it’s a human skill for making meaning, relieving tension, and creating connection. In this conversation, Kathy Klotz-Guest reframes humor as playfulness + truth-telling that builds trust, unlocks creativity, and makes hard moments easier to navigate.
Summary:
Dr. Katie and humor strategist/comedian Kathy Klotz-Guest unpack the myth that humor is only for “funny people.” Kathy distinguishes being funny (performing for laughs) from humor (sense-making with levity). Humor, she argues, is how we rewrite a healthier story about the hard stuff — the messy, awkward, unchosen parts of life and work — without minimizing them.
They explore why humor works: it lowers perceived threat, releases pressure, and helps people access clearer thinking and creativity. In teams, humor becomes a fast track to trust and psychological safety — when it’s healthy. Kathy breaks down the difference between affiliative humor (laughing with, building together) and aggressive humor (punching down, “steamrolling,” weaponizing laughter). They also discuss how humor can be a cultural signal: the presence (and quality) of laughter often reveals whether people truly feel safe.
Finally, Kathy shares practical ways to apply humor in high-stakes environments: hosting a “funeral” or “roast” for a failed project (with guardrails), naming awkwardness out loud, and using playfulness to surface truth without blame. The closing invitation: if you can laugh, you have access to humor — the work is less “learning” and more unlearning terminal seriousness and giving yourself permission to be fully, authentically you.
Key Learnings:
Humor ≠ being funny. Humor is sense-making and reframing with lightness; jokes are only one small category.
Humor lowers the threat level. Healthy laughter helps people shift out of stress mode and back into creative, connected thinking.
Trust moves at the speed of self-awareness. When leaders can laugh at their own mistakes, it signals safety and accountability.
Not all humor is healthy. Affiliative humor builds morale and connection; aggressive humor punches down and destroys trust.
Laughter is a culture signal. Organic, inclusive laughter often indicates psychological safety; forced laughter (or mean laughter) is a red flag.
Humor is a leadership muscle. Most people “have it,” but they need permission and practice.
Use humor to process failure without blame. “Roast the project, not the people” can surface truth, reveal themes, and move teams forward.
Practices Shared in this episode:
Kathy's website: Keeping It Human
Kathy's book: Stop Boring Me
Kathy's Podcast: Seriously Funny
Guest Info:
Kathy Klotz-Guest is a speaker, author, and humor strategist — and a standup comedian with a background in tech. She helps leaders and organizations keep work human in high-pressure environments by using humor to build trust, psychological safety, and connection. Her work focuses on making humor accessible as a learnable leadership skill, not a personality trait.
