A new report released by the Stanford University of Medicine (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9961170/) shows that women are supposedly more likely to enjoy a joke, and have a more discriminating sense of humor. But really, I think the report shows that women are not all that funn-ay.
In the study, they showed 70 different cartoons, by which they mean comics, to 10 men and 10 women (what a huge sample) and noticed that women seemed to enjoy the comics more. From this they determined that women are more likely to enjoy a good joke than men, perhaps because they don’t expect it to be funny.
Now, when I read the comics, I also don’t expect it to be funny. Who finds The Family Circus amusing? Not Me.
And do these comics count as a "good joke"? One of the comics they showed was the kid with his mouth open in a snowstorm with two birds above him. One bird is saying to the other, "Hey, are you thinking what I’m thinking?" It’s kinda cute, sorta, but is it a good joke?
Here it is:
And seriously, does anyone reading this e-mail actually expect comic II to be funny? None of the survey respondents found it funny (it was rated the least funny cartoon… ever).
According to Dr. Allan Reiss, who led the study, "Women appeared to have less expectation of a reward, which in this case was the punch line of the cartoon, so when they got to the joke’s punch line, they were more pleased about it." I’ll accept that–women don’t know that the funny’s coming because they aren’t able to predict punchlines because women aren’t funny, and thus are pleasantly surprised. But I think men -do- know the funny’s coming, and when they get to the disappointing end of the joke, they are simply disappointed. No pleasure centers are triggered because there is nothing to trigger them.
But let’s look at that a bit more: Women appeared to have less expectation of a reward. I don’t think it necessarily means that women are pleasantly surprised, I think it means that they have no standards for a good joke. Dudes expect a joke to make them laugh. Hell, we demand it! And if you show us the unfunny piece of crap #II comic, then it better be pretty goddamned funny to make up for the time we have wasted reading it.
Anyway, I went and glanced at the actual report, available here: Women Not So Funny .
What they found is that women have to think harder than men about jokes. Does that say that women are funnier? No, it says that women just don’t get it. I mean, c’mon, if you have to think hard about the comic above, then you seriously just don’t get it. And if your reward center in your brain is tickled pink by that, then you do not have a very sophisticated sense of humor.
But what this study shows is that not only are women not funny, but neither are scientists. Admittedly, that’s not a revolutionary thought, but here’s a line from Dr. Weiss: "It doesn’t take a lot of analytical machinery to think someone getting poked in the eye is funny," he commented when asked about humor like the Three Stooges.
True, it doesn’t take analytical machinery to get the joke, you just do. It’s innate and requires less brain power for men to get the Three Stooges, for instance, or other simple but easily enjoyed jokes.
But my absolute favorite part of the study is this graphic:
I call it "The Not Funny Part Of The Brain".
Now, I will couch all of this by saying that I know some very funny women (hence why I’m sending this to Jen). And I believe that they, like funny men, have an innate sense of humor that doesn’t require a large amount of brain power to figure out a joke. Jen, I’d be interested in your take on this, since I highly respect your sense o’ the funny.
Anyway, check out the article. It’s kinda funny.
– Mike
P.S. What about laughing at things that are so unfunny that they become funny again?