<![CDATA[Digital mental health communication increasingly takes the form of informal conversations between health professionals and podcast hosts. In such interactions, humor may emerge spontaneously rather than as a planned communication strategy, raising questions about how audiences interpret its appropriateness and communicative value. This study explores how audiences interpret conversational humor in mental health communication on YouTube and how such humor is negotiated within interactions between a health professional and a podcast host. Using a qualitative netnographic approach, the study analyzed comments on the YouTube video Buat yang Lagi Stres, featuring podcast host Raditya Dika and psychiatrist Elvine Gunawan. From an initial corpus of 1,043 main comments, 123 comments were selected through contextual screening and analyzed using Schreier’s qualitative content analysis. Symbolic interactionism theory was used to examine how audiences construct and negotiate meanings surrounding humor through their interpretations of the interaction between both speakers. The findings show that conversational humor is understood not merely through jokes but through the interactional context in which humor emerges, including spontaneity, differences in humor style, interpersonal dynamics, and expectations regarding professionalism and topic sensitivity. Humor may make mental health communication feel more approachable, yet audiences continue to evaluate its relevance, accuracy, and appropriateness. From a symbolic interactionist perspective, audiences act as negotiators of the meanings and boundaries of acceptable humor. Conversational humor in digital mental health communication should thus be understood as a contextual, interactional, and audience-dependent communicative practice rather than a universally effective message strategy.]]>
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