When a felt emotion is unwanted, people can change their emotional experience by engaging in emotion regulation. Humor has been shown to be effective in reducing negative emotions, however positive, friendly humor compared to negative, aggressive humor results in more positive outcomes. The current research investigated antecedents to choosing negative humor to reduce negative emotions. Intense emotional experiences motivate disengagement from the stimulus and negative humor was proposed to represent a disengagement strategy. It was hypothesized that participants will choose negative humor more often when they experience highly intense emotions. Participants (N = 97) watched a neutral, a mild or highly intense version of a film to induce disgust. Then, participants indicated their preference for positive or negative humor by selecting humorous cartoons and indicating the degree they prefer humor with positive or negative content. Control variables included age, gender, social desirability, disgust sensitivity, and humor style. A chi-square test, logistic regression, ANOVA, and multiple regression analysis revealed that movie condition did not influence humor preference. However, gender, disgust sensitivity, and aggressive humor style were related to humor preference. The results suggest that all forms of humor might operate as a disengagement strategy, individual differences are important when evaluating strategy choice, and people may not be aware of effective regulation strategies. Limitations include a cross-sectional design, use of a single emotion, and a distanced frame of reference. Further research should explore individual characteristics and use time restriction in decision making.