Gender and Humor

Just for a second there I thought you were talking about Eric Sykes. Surely not...?

No, Wanda Sykes. Black female comic. Edited by onifre, : No reason given.

Sorry everyone.........It seems that by the general consensus of this thread I am a woman. Comedically at least.I won't be giving up the day job.

But everyone does the head-back, open-mouth, breathless and rhythmic funny noises thing when they laugh. There's no special 'female laugh ritual'.About the evolutionary explanation... I made some vague point a while ago about how laughter makes you physically vulnerable, and that could explain a male reluctance or resistance to laughing when with women, particularly with women that he wishes to impress with his manly strength and self-control.I suppose making someone laugh is a way of overpowering them, reducing them to a weakened state. (Remember the 'military applications of the world's funniest joke' Python sketch'?) Edited by aiki, : No reason given.

I've always quite liked that joke. Maybe you have a point

Hey Oni,So, it seems funny stand-up material (which could have been co-written or ghost written), performed/honed flawlessly over time can be successfully delivered by not-so-funny-but-excellent-performers/actors.As per Mod's summary above of Hitchen's video, Mod writes "Men are faster than women". (I still haven't watched the video, I need to use my brother's home computer later)If this is true, maybe stand up comedy should be somewhat less weighted to measure GENDER humor, because, for reasons above, it does NOT NECESSARILY show quick wit . . .If this is also true, than perhaps we should more weight interviews or talk show environments where the absence of scripted environments COULD lend a crutch to those who are less funny.Can we test this hypothesis? In your opinion, how funny would your examples of funny women (Sarah Silverman, Andi Smith, Tina Fey) be in interviews or as talk show hosts?Compared to Rivers, Ellen Degeneress, Rosie O-Donnel? (Regardless of how unfunny you think they are, they are more quicker-witted than the average person, correct?).Alas, should quick-wit be the overall measure of funny?E.g. Lucy Ball, great comedic actor, but crappy interviewee. Thusly, not a funny person.Do you agree with any of this?Edited by dronester, : used correct science terminologyEdited by dronester, : clarityEdited by dronester, : more clarity

Well we can arrange a girls night out and tell each other lame-arse jokes while Oni drinks himself to death in a manly bout of beer-laden despair.The pina colladas are on you!!

Spectacular! I KNEW I hadn't made a terrible mistake registering on this website...

Yeah! - Go girl!!(**** "It's Raining Men" blasts away in the background as Straggler struggles with his earrings ****)

(*** takes full advantage of Straggler's momentary difficulties by seizing him for a faux-lesbian snog to impress the boys ***)This IS good-natured banter, right? I'm not very good at judging stuff like that online... must be a chick thing... Anyway, I hope it is cos I always liked your posts. I especially enjoyed the redoubtable 'EvC rap'

I've pulled It seems I am (even) more successful with the ladies as a woman than I am as a man. I believe so. That is what the guys call it. I think. Well it is always nice to meet a "fan". But I didn't know you were around in my EvC wigga days? Did you lurk for long before joining in?

Ah, those guys, with their subtle ways and mysterious nuances... Yes. Ages. Well over a year, anyway. I am very interested in evolution and natural history in general. But I don't have a particularly strong science background and next to no debating background. The level of debate here is frequently wonderful. And anyway I'm more of a listener than a talker (usually). Would like to contribute more though. I'm always poised to answer questions about British wildlife.I've lurked on the FRDB forum for just as long, only joined up there quite recently and then only to identify a caterpillar for someone.

Is Wanda Sykes the one who occasionally appears in Curb Your Enthusiasm, always giving LD a hard time?

I know I know. It's a wonder how us girls can ever get to grips with their alien customs and bizarre rituals. Christ - If most here let ignorance or lack of debating skill deter them this place would be a typographical desert. I have found pseudo-intellectualism, a decent vocabulary and an inclination to fervently fly into an argument regardless of any initial knowledge as a more than sufficient basis to participate. But maybe that is just me..... You should!! Seriously as long as you can research stuff to layman level that is all that is really required to meaningfully take part in even the most technical threads. The real experts that EvC is blessed with are willing to educate all but the most stubbornly dogmatic (of which there are also plenty). And a lot of threads are not that technical or even debate heavy anyway. And you can always just undertake debate target practice on hardline creos if you want some fun for the hell of it Not in this thread. Loudmouth Quality. One never knows when a wildlife expert will come in handy.

And everyone has nipples. This may be true - but it doesn't explain why women find women less funny than men. If that were true (and I believe some very small scale studies have shown that it might be), then we really do have a behavioural differences between us and it's something to think about. Is it genetic or cultural? Is it genetic that its cultural? Maybe that would explain being funny - and Hitchens raises the point regarding laughter being a kind of surrender. It still raises the question of the forms of laughter and why they take on the forms they do (Why do we curl up into a spasming ball? What's paying for that?), I'm not sure if the 'looks a bit like having sex' phenomenon has any particular support. Maybe some of the habits in sex emulate laughter instead?Some ideas look at it as a possible signal of communal 'all safe' noise, similar to that which our cousins make (or even, "Attack!" which might contribute towards explaining Schadenfreude and black comedy). When we encounter a confusing situation, once we have understood that it is just an absurd lingustic play, we alert others not to worry about the paradoxical or strange content. There is good evidence (and you can test it yourself) that people laugh harder and longer when in a crowd that is also laughing. I'm sure we've all experienced the sensation of being unable to stop from laughing despite your best intentions when surrounded by others. So the primal primate communal signalling idea has some merit perhaps.It would be interesting to do a survey. First find how people rate sense of humour highly as a relatively important feature in a sexual partner.Of those that do, ask why is that important.It would be interesting to see if there was a sex based difference between "I want someone who can make me laugh" and "I want someone who will laugh at my jokes." type answers. It would be even more fascinating if we could tell if they were telling the truth or not Anyway...erm. Yeah. I have yet to see conclusive studies that answer any of this, and I've been playing with introducing a 'Evolution of Laughter: Why did God create laughing at willies and farts again?' topic for a while but I've never been able to polish it off (fnar).Edited by Modulous, : No reason given.