It’s an old adage that laughter is the best medicine. But increasingly, parents are finding out that laughter can be a key element in the development of young and older children. That’s why comedy – in the most general sense, actions intended to cause laughter – can be a useful tool for parents to raise their kids in an intentional and positive way.

Never too young to be funny!

Babies as young as 12 hours old can smile, and although true laughter comes a few months later, it helps infants learn about their environment and develop their brain functions. That’s part of the reason why parents employ games like peekaboo and break out baby voices to elicit laughter and joy from their children, even if they may be unaware of the unintended benefits beyond just joy.

Peekaboo - when a parent alternates between hiding and reappearing, usually to the delight of their babies - helps teach an infant that objects exist even if they can’t be seen. “Laughing at peekaboo is a marker for a certain level of intellectual development. The intensity of the 1-year-old’s laughter tells you that he or she ‘gets it,’ writes author and former New York Times columnist Lawrence Kutner, PhD. in PsychCentral.com.

Similar benefits of laughter come when parents comically use silly baby voices to elicit laughter from toddlers. By the age of 2, kids know how language is supposed to sound, so when parents use high pitches and nonsensical words, kids react. “They understand that the nonsense syllables are different than words. The sounds are out of place. They are funny,” Kutner adds.

Dad jokes help teens cope

While slapstick and goofy comedy may help kids develop and understand the world, comedy for older children and youth can serve a different purpose for parents, but no less beneficial. Whether a father tries to break a teen’s sour mood with a dad joke or a mother and daughter bond while watching a funny comedian, comedy has the ability to bring parents and children together.

A study done by Penn State University released in August 2025, studied the ways humor is used by parents and how their children viewed their relationships with them as well as how they characterized their upbringing in general when they became adults.

The study found that humor, when used thoughtfully, had the potential to positively influence parent-child dynamics by introducing playfulness and flexibility into tense situations. Parents can use humor to disrupt escalating tantrums or bad moods by introducing unexpected play, which can redirect their child’s emotional state and give them a moment to reset.

Bonding by telling jokes, laughing together while watching a comedian, or just observing and smiling privately at funny situations at the mall or that happen in ordinary life fosters connection and emotional security, the study explained. Outside the home, the study found that comedy and humor-based strategies improve coping, resilience, and cohesion for children as they grow and suggested that parents who employ humor may promote similar positive outcomes in their children.

The study found over half (55.2 percent) of grown children who had a positive relationship with those who raised them reported that humor was used in their upbringing, with about the same amount saying they would also raise their children using humor. More than 71 percent believed that humor could be an effective parenting tool.

Making fun of your kids with caution

Although the study examined at length the positive aspects of using humor to raise well-adapted children and teens, it also highlighted some instances where humor could be counterproductive to raising well-adapted children. It pointed to situations where humor may not be an ideal tool for parenting, including when it undermines authority or when the message of a joke conveys a negative sentiment.

Belittling children to the point where you make them sad or cry and then telling them they “can’t take a joke” also represents a dark side of using comedy to parent. Jokes should not be used to shame or embarrass children, and especially not to hurt them. One of the authors of the study, Dr. Benjamin Levi told CNN, “The real question is, how can humor be used appropriately for children? Because humor can be weaponized. Humor can be exploitative,” he said.

Levi and other experts said that the helpfulness of humor is dependent on things like a child’s age and their temperament, and that the use of comedy must be appropriate considering any problems they are facing. Slapstick and storytelling may be good for younger children, but sarcasm is likely lost on most kids until they are older and likely to use it themselves!

He went on to say that parents should consider the purpose of the humor they employ and consider whether it comes at the expense of their children or is intended for their benefit or the parents.