The benign violation theory explains humorous responses to a broad range of situations. The theory suggests that humor occurs when a person simultaneously appraises a situation as wrong or threatening some way (i.e., a violation) and yet appraises the situation to be okay or acceptable in some way (i.e., benign). Play fighting and tickling are prototypical examples of benign violations because both are physically threatening but harmless attacks.

A particular strength of the theory is that it predicts when things are not funny: a situation can fail to be humorous because it depicts a violation that does not simultaneously seem benign, or because it depicts a benign situation that has no violation. For example, play fighting and tickling cease to elicit laughter either when the attack stops (strictly benign) or becomes too aggressive (malign violation). Jokes similarly fail to be funny when either they are too tame or too risqué.