Question

The coarsest type of humor is the practical joke: pulling away the chair from the dignitary's lowered bottom. the victim is perceived first as a person of consequence, then suddenly an inert body subject to the laws of physics: authority is debunked by gravity, mind by matter; man is degraded to a mechanism

Answer 1

Practical jokes can override social status by relegating even ones perceived as the of the highest status to the literal butt of a joke. Such acts helps to break the tensions and empower those who would otherwise not attempt to bridge the social divide to feel free to speak up