Topic: Are men funnier than women?

[flotemysost]

If you're comparing 'men tying to be funny' and 'women trying to be funny' then you're either going by a) your own idea of what 'funny' is, which is so incredibly subjective and personal, or b) what the world in general perceives to be funny, and at risk of sounding like a sanctimonious bore, that's never going to be comparing like with like while women and men are perceived to fulfill different roles in society, as others have said more eloquently. So it's a bit of a redundant question in my opinion - although that doesn't mean it's not interesting to discuss why that is.

I think there's still a general idea (which I completely disagree with) that women are more squeamish and genteel than men, and so any comedy by women which goes against this (i.e. anything at all crude/weird/smutty/dark/cruel etc.) can come across a bit try-hard and grating, but I think that's mainly because there's this inherent prejudice and so anything which goes against it seems like it's trying to prove a point, whereas similarly-themed comedy made by men isn't necessarily up against that initial hurdle.

I can see a certain style of humour that women seem to like more than men, which is the Millican / Hart / Wood / Snack the Pony comedy of recognition, where there is a sort of giggly 'Oh yeah haha that's me thats me that that's me that's so me' satisfaction of having a heightened version of your own life (or the embarrassing bits) reflected back at you. In contrast, I can neither identify with it, nor do I seek that satisfaction from that dynamic in a comedy, meaning it has less value to me.

Not to single you out as this is totally fair point, but I do find generalisations like this quite frustrating - I'm not into that sort of twee giggly humour and it bothers me that there's an expectation of 'this is what all women like' (although I appreciate many do).

I'd never really thought about relatability being something that people look for in humour but I guess that is something that appeals to me on some level, although I don't really find it in yer Millicans et al. But then where does 'relatability' end? You could argue that the appeal of, say, any sitcom scene involving a socially awkward/embarrassing situation (of there are obviously millions involving men) comes from the ability to recognise and put yourself in that scenario.

 I think people are just into what they're into, really.

[Zetetic]

that's never going to be comparing like with like while women and men are perceived to fulfill different roles in society,

I don't see how this matters if you're blinding judges to to the gender of the author of the humour being judged - or at least you have to construct some claim about people tending to perceive anonymous humour in particular modalities as gendered (and that this leads their judgements).

(Not that we shouldn't be try to find other ways of getting at "humour production ability", and of course some of these might be fundamentally incompatible with anonymity and blinding to people to gender.)

[Buelligan]

Very Day Today, though, isn't it?  I can just see his lovely serious face announcing humour measurements in a kind of GDP has fallen for the second quarter type way. 

EtAFWIW, I'm not amused at all by people doing stuff just like me, I laugh enough at myself.  I quite like bizarre things, odd thought-provoking juxtapositions that remind one of the futility of sense and cleverness.  Those those are the elements for me. 

[Zetetic]

A bit yes - reductiveness of measurement can be a bit ridiculous.

(Which to me would seem like an argument for trying to make better sense of people's reactions to humour in a more nuanced way, while still aiming at some of robustness - not as a replacement for art criticism or philosophy of humour, but as an adjunct to these things.)

[Buelligan]

Yes, I'm not opposed at all to people trying to make sense of humour, as long as they don't take themselves too seriously.  But then, obviously, no one should.

[Kryton]

What's with the shitty poll? Can we not talk about comedy on a comedy forum. It's not like I've said men are funnier than women. I've linked an article and poll and wanted genuine discussion and spoken about my favourite female comedians and performers, so why am I being attacked?

[pigamus]

If men are desperate for a piss all the time and women aren't, it stands to reason that men would produce a greater volume of piss overall. But that doesn't mean that woman aren't capable of piss.

[NJ Uncut]

What's with the shitty poll? Can we not talk about comedy on a comedy forum. It's not like I've said men are funnier than women. I've linked an article and poll and wanted genuine discussion and spoken about my favourite female comedians and performers, so why am I being attacked?

I don't think anyone should care tbh, it's divisive - we're all individuals and comedy, above almost anything else, is subjective

It's like asking if men are more musical than women. Does it really have to be asked, especially in an age when we are trying to get the genders / sexes equal?

It would be better to ask simply, who, what individual, is considered funniest.

[Buelligan]

A very small boy (four), of whom I am extremely fond, turned to one of our neighbours, an old batchelor man that hunts (sixty-something), and told him You park like a clown. 

That was funny but he's not man nor woman neither.

[Paul Calf]

But he did delight you.

[Buelligan]

_{By my smiling I say so}

[thenoise]

Hello women reading this I think that all research about gender differences is a lot of nonsense apart from when it concludes women are better in which case it's Western medicine finally catching up with what women have always known.

[Buelligan]

Well, you know, lovely Jane Austen lived and died under the heavy hand of the patriarchy but she managed a laugh and pricked pomposity where she could.

For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?

That old girl knew a thing or two.

[madhair60]

A very small boy (four), of whom I am extremely fond, turned to one of our neighbours, an old batchelor man that hunts (sixty-something), and told him You park like a clown. 

That was funny but he's not man nor woman neither.

Give the cunt his own Netflix Special

[Twed]

Which job?

They've tried to answer an interesting question better than "I reckon". I don't want to overstate how well they've tried to answer it - an anonymous cartoon caption competition obviously isn't a task that represents the diverse nature of "humour production ability" very well for a start. (And there's some very brief discussion of this in the paper.)


From their actual conclusion:
"Examination of such data suggest that regardless of the underlying source of variability, men exhibit higher humor ability than women on the kinds of verbal tasks included in our sample of studies. It is important to remember that though robust, these differences are small to medium in size, and are based on averages. They do not reflect individual abilities, as both men and women vary largely in their abilities to produce humor."

(I think 'to medium' possibly overstates the case.)

PUT THE DATA AWAY IT WILL TELL YOU NOTHING

[Bazooka]

I laughed at a women slipping on ice once, so no, women are funnier.

[thenoise]

Around 17% of women are on their period at a given time.  Adjusting for this figure, using the hypothesis that women on their periods aren't funny, we conclude that women are 2% funnier than men (unless they are on their periods).

In conclusion: Vaginas, periods and willies.

[Zetetic]

It's like asking if men are more musical than women. Does it really have to be asked, especially in an age when we are trying to get the genders / sexes equal?

That's all the more reason to ask those sorts of questions, and to try to understand if it's something in how we treat people differently from birth that produces any differences (and whether that's something we should tackle).

[Buelligan]

Yep.  Like checking whether/why only white men are any cop at footy.  I don't see anything wrong in trying to measure the thing but, for goodness sake, if we're even considering the possibility that it might not be eugenics but the fact that we live in an unequal culture that's creating this idea, let's change the culture, eh?  I mean, why not, just for a laugh?

I love you Z, this is not aimed at you, I am screaming at the world.

[dissolute ocelot]

I can't see anything about who was judging. At minimum we need to test if women are better at judging comedy than men (this would also help show if women have evolved to appreciate funny guys). And if so, we can sack all the male comedy critics.

They should also have asked the judges to guess the gender of who wrote each joke, to check they're not going, "A woman wrote this, it's not funny". And they could compare the judges with that much more scientific tool, the laughometer.

[Kryton]

I hope nobody here thinks i'm misogynistic, that poll has upset me a little. I've never done or said anything that could be considered that way and my OP was never aiming at upsetting anyone either, I just thought it was the perfect place to discuss it.

There's definitely a culture that boosts the apparent funniness of men and degrades funny women as being nothing more than 'kooky', but I believe that's changing these days for the better.

[The Boston Crab]

Like checking whether/why only white men are any cop at footy.

Is this a joke

[Kryton]

Is this a joke

Yeah that's a very odd example/comparison.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

I hope nobody here thinks i'm misogynistic, that poll has upset me a little. I've never done or said anything that could be considered that way and my OP was never aiming at upsetting anyone either, I just thought it was the perfect place to discuss it.

Comedy Chat would have been the perfect place, you monster, you.

[Voltan (Man of Steel)]

I think more women should be encouraged into comedy. They're usually paid less so ticket prices would probably come down.*

*Written by me, a man. QED.

[icehaven]

I've always found it telling/interesting/just plain weird how card shops seem to encapsulate this notion that men have a sense of humour and women not so much. Way more cards from or to a male relative are funny* than the ones from or to a female relative. Obviously there's tons of cards that aren't gender/relative specific, and of course there are still funny* ones for or from women (typically revolving around Prosecco at the moment but that's a whole other wormcan), but by and large it's a lot harder to find a jokey card from a daughter than from a son, and there's way more humorous cards for your Dad's birthday than for your Mum's.
 
Not that I'm suggesting that card shops are some kind of barometer of society's assumptions about gender difference or anything, although they are something that exists so it has some relevance.





*Well supposed to be anyway

[pigamus]

I see my piss analogy has failed to gain any traction in this thread.

I am disappointed but not surprised.

[Buelligan]

Is this a joke

No, take a look back to the last century and you'll see that professional football was a white man's game, not, I think, because people who weren't white men lacked ability. 

[The Boston Crab]

[Buelligan]

https://www.ajc.com/lifestyles/pele-soccer-legend-has-spoken-race-but-some-say-not-enough/VjWrpdpG9uZTixV9aWSLxM/