[Humor] is invaluable as a means of destroying shame. If a man simply lets others pay for him, he is "mean"; if he boasts of it in a jocular manner and twits his fellows with having been scored off, he is no longer "mean" but a comical fellow.... Cruelty is shameful—unless the cruel man can represent it as a practical joke. A thousand bawdy, or even blasphemous, jokes do not help towards a man's damnation so much as his discovery that almost anything he wants to do can be done, not only without the disapproval but with the admiration of his fellows, if only it can get itself treated as a joke.
speak evil of no one, nor listen with pleasure to any one who speaks evil of another. But if you listen, you will partake of the sin of him who speaks evil, if you believe the slander which you hear; for believing it, you will also have something to say against your brother. Thus, then, will you be guilty of the sin of him who slanders. For slander is evil and an unsteady demon. It never abides in peace, but always remains in discord. Keep yourself from it, and you will always be at peace with all.https://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/shepherd.html
I wish that I may be so far from speaking ill of them that are good, that I may rather be silent than, without a just cause and call, speak ill of them that are evil. Though the wicked, like dogs, fall upon the sheep of Christ with open mouth, and strive to bury their good names in the open sepulchre of their wide throats, yet the sheep of Christ do rather suffer their rage with patience, than render reviling for reviling.