This paper synthesizes a broad body of inquiry in order to present a brief overview of how laughter operates as a heuristic for social situations and cultural artifacts. It claims that all laughter is indelibly associated with positivity. Phenomena traditionally read as objecting this claim – like malicious laughter and pathological laughter – only serve to strengthen a comprehension we are born with that links laughter to positivity. It is asserted that laughter is perceived as positive or otherwise because context either strengthens an innate comprehension that connects laughter to positivity, or else forces that comprehension into some level of contradiction. Either way, the link is never dissolved. Basing its claims on evolutionary theory and emotion inquiry, and informed by the two-thousand-plus-year history of the philosophy of humor, this inquiry is the first to systematically debate those aspects of laughter that transcend context and subject.