Background: Humor has long been associated with potential benefits on physical and psychological health and well-being. Martin et al., (2003) identified and developed a tool to measure various functions, forms or styles of humor with either beneficial, adaptive expression or in detrimental, maladaptive operations. The purpose of this study was to explore these humor styles in a population of recovering individuals with substance use disorder attending 12-step recovery programs. Humor style preferences were compared between newer members (less than one-year abstinence) versus established, successful members (more than five years abstinence). Methods: Demographics, including age and gender, number of months of complete abstinence and level of 12-step participation including having a sponsor or not, and weekly meeting attendance. The Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ) was self-administered, measuring affiliative, self-enhancing, aggressive and self-defeating humor style scores. Hypothesis 1: that adaptive humor expression (affiliative, self-enhancing styles) would be higher in the successfully recovering group. Hypothesis 2: that maladaptive humor expression (aggressive, self-defeating styles) would be higher in the newcomer group. Results: Self-defeating humor style was significantly higher in the newcomer group (p