Editor’s Note: For the 2021 edition of duPont Registry Tampa Bay’s Health & Happiness Issue, we asked an assortment of funny people “What makes you laugh?” Tracie Mayo‘s sense of humor is immediately apparent when you meet her, and I got to know it even better after interviewing her and her partner in life and mortgages, Eileen Donovan, for dRTB’s feature “REALtor LOVE” last year. But what cracks me up on a regular basis are her Facebook posts, which are a little dark, a little sardonic and always laugh-out-loud funny. Like this recent one: “do not regret past mistakes. all decisions, good or bad, led you to where you are today,” it begins. Then, the punchline: “disregard this if you are in prison.” Here’s her take on why you gotta laugh at jokes like that:

Tracie Mayo, mortgage broker, Savvy Mortgage Lending

Dark humor has always made me laugh. If something is shocking and/or dark, I literally will crack up because of it. I love when people can make fun of the things that would normally shock someone else. And I immediately connect with them. I think there is a reason some people find dark subjects funny … it gives us control over things that we fear … perhaps … like death.

One of my favorite jokes:

What has four legs and one arm? A happy pit bull.

It’s dark … crazy … shocking … funny … and horrible at the same time. Someone who has lost an arm would not find humor in it … but those of us who find it funny can just mentally see this happy little pit bull wagging his tail with an arm in his mouth. And it’s terrible … but … funny.

I think people like laughing at those types of things (even if just internally) because we all take life a little too seriously in today’s world … and we need to laugh a little more.