I think it's related, as comedy is part of culture, and I can easily see comedy (along with acting and many of the other expressive arts) essentially evolving from the "base emotion" of playfulness. We see playfulness in other mammals, it makes sense that comedy branched from that in humans to cope with suffering and death.
And that is pretty interesting. Sometimes I think about how terrifying flying/being responsible for a jet must be. As cool as the job would be, don't think i'd want that responsibility.
Pilot dies after military jet crashes in California | Fox News