The person who can be playful without making someone vulnerable has learned a useful skill.

Lightness usually gets its energy from somewhere, and the cheapest source is a person in the room. Teasing works instantly because exposure is funny, which is why so much humour is built on somebody being slightly stripped. Finding the same energy without that cost is harder and takes years: playing with the situation, with language, with yourself. People who manage it are unusually easy to relax around, and it is not an accident.

Watch where your own jokes get their fuel this week. If the answer is usually a person, try aiming at the circumstance instead and see if it still works.