It just occurred to me that you could use comedy as a way of truly illustrating what a culture is all about. Ultimately, the things that people tend to find funny is whatever they’ve been raised to think of as inappropriate, so comedy is a way to show what the ideals of this people are - by presenting a mirror image of it. Something that the people fear to be or become, deep down.
A culture that is high-context, deeply conservative, traditional, and dead serious in all things would find it funny to see someone unwittingly fuck up so badly that their entire family line has been shamed for generations, and doesn’t even seem to understand it. A fool insulting someone important right to their face is so inappropriate that it’s funny - but the laughter isn’t aimed at the insulted person, the audience laughs at the fool.
While a people who generally do not take themselves or life too seriously would laugh at the people who do. It’s silly, laughable and embarrassing to make a huge deal about everything and get offended when other people don’t take it as seriously. It’s ridiculous for someone to sulk like a child over something like that.
Consider a culture of warrior nomads, who gather once per year for a celebration of their common roots, to trade goods and occasionally members, and meet friends and relatives from other clans. And as one of the features of the gathering, they perform plays. And one of the stock characters of their comedies is the simpering coward, who keeps making or finding trouble and then has his mother fight his fights for him.
And this role is traditionally played by the biggest, burliest man that the clan has, purely because someone who couldn’t brawl his way out of problems he causes by having more mouth than muscle simply isn’t funny, it’s just sad. But a strong man who could be a warrior folding immediately when the beef he started actually finds him is shit-your-pants-laughing hilarious.
While anyone of any clan would be ashamed to have such a man for a son, spouse or friend, within a play such a spectacle is nothing but fun and games. And while the audience roars with laughter and even heckles, playing the role of the coward is not a shame, but as a matter of fact it is downright an honour. After all, it’s a much harder man who volunteers to be a laughingstock, than someone who’ll stab anyone at the drop of a hat for any hint of disrespect.