The literature on humor generally focuses on the nature of incongruities as the root of humor. In this article, the author takes the examination of humor one step further by meditating on the mental frame involved with humor. He is interested in what cultural experiences would predispose the individuals within a given culture to have a sense of humor in the first place. He applied Morreall's notion of the comic vision to Anishinaabe culture and religion in a previous study of Anishinaabe humor. Drawing on the work of a number of researchers, he argues for a connection between silence and humor in American Indian cultures, with the Anishinaabe serving as a case study. (Contains 40 notes.)