We’ve written plenty about the biology of groin pain here at the Ball Report, but there’s a second side to getting hit in the balls, and that’s how it can make you laugh. We all know that human suffering isn’t funny, but there’s something about testicular trauma that makes it a go-to for comedy. Why is that? A recent article at Men’s Health investigates.

They talked to clinical psychologist Richard Shuster, Psy.D., host of The Daily Helping podcast, and he brought up a pretty important fact: the key to so much humor is anticipation. A kick to the nuts out of nowhere isn’t funny - there has to be context to it. So what makes you laugh is the buildup before the impact. It removes your individual sympathy and replaces it with tension, and tension is funny.

There’s nothing wrong with laughing at a good groin hit - it doesn’t mean you’re a bad person. Laughter is a totally valid release valve for tension. There’s also something called “incongruity theory” at work - because we’re not expecting a nut shot, it’s out of place. And that’s funny.

Sure, over-examining things can make them less funny, but it’s important to understand why we laugh, even in the face of testicular pain.

Read more at Men’s Health.