A funny woman is like a dog that can walk on its hind
legs. She’s brave, whip smart, uncommon,
perhaps the next step in the evolutionary ladder, but even if she makes them
howl with laughter most men would prefer she was trained to bring them a
beer. Of late, several men who make
their living peddling laughs have being booed for voicing the opinion that
women aren’t funny. I think it’s time
for a woman to admit that these dudes are right. Women aren’t funny – to them.
Humor is so subjective.
Everything from the person telling a joke to the setting in which the
joke is told determines whether or not we find it funny. The same edgy joke that gets a full belly
laugh among your circle of friends could fall completely flat in front of a
crowd of strangers. So for Adam Carrolla
to say that women writers were always the weakest links on TV shows expresses
his opinion, his personal sense of humor.
I think he’s narrow-minded and I think he looks like a skinny
Frankenstein, but I don’t think either of us should get reamed for our rude
opinions.
I cringe when I even think about those clowns tormenting
their balls on the old MTV show Jackass – and I don’t even have balls. Which is exactly why I don’t get it. Just like monster trucks and my little ponies
were developed to appeal to different audiences, different people find
different things funny. When it comes to
humor, studies have proven that men think violence is much funnier than women
do.
Professor Sam Shuster conducted a yearlong study in which he
unicycled (hilarious) around the streets of Newcastle and documented the
responses of over 400 individuals. Of
those who responded verbally, almost 95% of women expressed amusement,
approval, or concern whereas over 75% of men expressed attempts at sarcastic or
put-down type humor. Particularly in the
late teenage years when male virility is at its peak, men became very
aggressive in their comedic remarks and behavior.
One particularly funny side note is that while men attempted
humor more frequently, their comments were rarely original or particularly
side-splitting. Two-thirds referred to
the obvious lack of wheel (“lost your wheel?” for example). Few women attempted humor and were more
likely to respond with concern. Which
leads to my next point about why women aren’t perceived by men as being funny –
we just aren’t as mean as you guys.
The fairer sex is the more empathetic sex, and our ability to
easily identify with people who are different than we are makes us more likely
to feel uncomfortable or embarrassed for a person being mocked than we are to
join in on the poking fun. When we see
someone fall down we wonder if they hurt themselves and don’t feel comfortable
cracking up about how funny they looked biting the dust until we’ve made sure
they’re okay. Does the rarity of a woman
who likes to give her pals a good verbal bashing mean we aren’t as funny as
men? Ridiculous.
Scientists generally agree that women have an advantage when
it comes to the functions of the right brain – the creative center. We’re more imaginative and whimsical than
men, which is exactly the kind of funny that tickles me most. Moreover we’re unafraid to be child-like and
silly which creates the kind of feel-good funny that I find really enjoyable.
There are several theories about why women aren’t funny – and
quite circumstantial studies which show only marginal differences between the
sexes – but mostly importantly I’d like to address the theory that evolution
favors other qualities in women, making a golden sense of humor less likely to
be an enduring trait in our gender. (The
reverse is allegedly true with men, that women link humor with intelligence and
therefore value it more in a partner.) I
think the only true difference in appreciation of humor is that men don’t know
how to express themselves in survey form.
Perhaps when given a list of qualities like “kind, pretty,
funny” men don’t rank “funny” as highly.
But regardless of what a man marks on a questionnaire, the real world
experience is that a relationship full of laughter has a solid foundation. Sure, there are probably insecure men who
feel emasculated by a funny girl but I think the kind of man who would discount
a girl because she can hold the attention of a room better than he can isn’t
much of a man at all.
The University of New Mexico recently published a study that
found men were not only funnier, but smarter than women because these qualities
equated to mating success. What a
joke. Not only do the published study
results show only the teeniest margin of difference between men and women
(measured by the ability to caption a cartoon, clearly state of the art science)
but the judges were four men and two women which can easily account for the
slight favorable points towards male caption writers.
Further, the way “mating success” is determined in this study
makes absolutely no sense. Participants
were basically asked to detail how frequently they get laid and given points
for multiple partners. Come again? Do scientists really think women use their
wit to get banged as often as possible?
For a woman, mating success is being able to please and be pleased by
the same, committed partner for as long as they both shall live not to have a
variety of seed sown in her like some slutty garden.
A sense of humor DOES equate to mating success for women – it
helps us deliver criticism with tact, end silly arguments, and forgive
insensitive errors of male judgment. So
it’s cool, we forgive you for not realizing how funny we are. And you can ride a unicycle if you want, we
won’t even laugh when you fall. At
least, not until after we’ve checked to make sure you’re okay.
