The skill of adding relief in a tense situation

[cflage]

I was on a call yesterday where someone had messed up in a way that frustrated a lot of people, including me. The short version: we are going to have to drop everything and work pretty hard because of whatever this person did.

It was rough. We kept doing back and forth and finding new things that were wrong every turn. We never did find out who made the bad decision, but anyway I didn't want to add to the flames. I just kept wishing the call would just end because being around all these angry people felt dangerous. I went into my "trapped" mode and didn't speak anymore, which in this case was convenient because my input wasn't needed.

And the leader on the call did something that baffled me. She managed to make a joke about how everyone was feeling that really cut the tension and let a lot of people walk away feeling more at ease. I would love to know more about how she was able to do that so elegantly.