Psychological well-being depends on an individual's ability to validate themselves through evaluation by comparison to established standards. These standards are usually normative based on the expected values ​​expressed in their community (Kuiper & McHale, 2009). The use of maladaptive humor styles to the detriment of one's psychological well-being, i.e., self-destructive humor, can therefore be understood as a means of expressing the perception of not measuring up to norms. Keeping in mind that this humor may seem light-hearted and bona fide to listeners, the narrator might ask, “Are they laughing with me or are they laughing at me?” To answer this question, it is important to note that individuals who use self-destructive humor show increased levels of depression and validate themselves more often against negative self-evaluation standards. This directly translates to the individual having a significantly lower level of self-esteem than an individual who uses self-enhancing adaptive humor. These negative standards result in firm beliefs, which instigate the dependence of one's happiness on social acceptance (Stieger, 2010). If such addictions manifest, the constant use of self-defeating humor results in contingencies on self-esteem such as the certainty that the individual is disapproved of and rejected by others. This results in a vicious cycle: self-defeating humor sends the