My hubby is of similar mindset. If you can't laugh, forget it. I use to be a very serious person. I always was thinking about serious matters. I met my husband and he taught me not to be that way. He makes the best jokes at the worse of times. It gets us through. He taught me how to do that. I appreciate that gift more than he will ever know.
I used to be pretty serious, too, and it wasn't my super yet humor-challenged hubby, it was a work friend.
I'd been a superstar in Boston advertising and very business oriented. Fortunately, when I met Earl I knew a joke and it was a good comeback for Earl's. He enjoyed the joke and took me under his wing.
Earl had just gotten back to work from a triple heart by-pass, one of the first, and had an extraordinary love of life. I was the age of his daughter, that might have helped, and he taught me how to tell jokes and to help people laugh. He was a wonderful man, God Bless him, and I still miss his jaunty walk and his loud jokes.