As creative devices, humor and play have the power to both soothe and subvert. When juxtaposed with serious themes in art, humor and play may create cognitive dissonance in the viewer where, amidst their internal conflict, viewers can often laugh at their own discomfort. Henri Bergson noted in “Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic,” there is an “…absence of feeling which usually accompanies laughter.” This absence creates a space for viewers to unpack the deeper conceptual underpinnings of the work.