This article claims that the capacity of humorous works to influence our attitudes is limited. We can only find something funny if we regard it as norm-violating in a way that doesn’t make certain pragmatic demands upon us (e.g. to defend the norm). It is compatible with these conditions that humour reinforces an attitude about a norm-violation. However it is not compatible with these conditions that we reject some existing attitude. Such a rejection would require that we recognize our attitude as norm-violating in a way that has pragmatic force. Thus if a humorous work reveals the absurdity of something, we can either find it funny and not have our attitudes significantly influenced, or else be significantly influenced but not find it funny.