Individuals vary in humor appreciation. Some explanations for this phenomenon focus on personality traits of sense of humor or individual differences of age and gender. Others emphasize ideological leanings such as conservatism. Diverging from these notions, we propose a novel explanation: financial disadvantage's role in diminishing hum or appreciation. In Study 1, we observe that financial disadvantage dampens humor appreciation. Scrutinizing the two cognitive processes integral to humor appreciation—detection (identifying incongruity) and resolution (resolving incongruity), Studies 2-4 and internal meta-analysis (Study 5) reveal that financial disadvantage impairs humor appreciation by hindering resolution, but not detection, capability. We further discuss how this mechanism may impact social inequality and the medical care gap.