A lunch table that only feels fun when someone’s being laughed at isn’t a safe table.

Humour that needs a target is only comfortable while the target is someone else. A table like that is not relaxed, since everyone there is doing quiet arithmetic about whose turn it is, which is why the laughing has an edge to it. It can take a while to notice, because being on the inside of it feels like belonging. Safety is being able to say something slightly dull and have it be fine.

If this is familiar, you do not have to make an announcement. Sit somewhere else for a couple of lunches and see how the hour feels. And when the joke starts, not laughing is enough.