Do men and women have a different sense of humour? What examples can you give?
Do men and women have a different sense of humour?
Ladies and gentleman, please welcome a young Jo Brand...
Women = 
Men = 
If they do I think it's learned, not inherent.
ie, due to society, not like, ingrained in their genes and shiz.
Dr. zooo everybody...
Generally no, I'd say, because humour is broadly universal, but in certain gender specific situations then I'd say yes. I think women like laughing about themselves more than men do, I'm pretty sure of that. Women also love humour by women for women more than men love male centred humour, IMO, it's just part of the gender club thing. Sex is something both genders find funny but I'd say women do it much more than men. Daft little inconcequential things tickle females more than males too, it seems to me. Also, aggressively sexual laddish jokes don't seem to appeal to most women, so I suppose if you specify closely then there are plenty of little differences.
Quote: Leevil @ February 21 2010, 3:27 PM GMTDr. zooo everybody...
Go behind the screen and pop your clothes off for me...
Quote: zooo @ February 21 2010, 3:30 PM GMTGo behind the screen and pop your clothes off for me...
More or less the same I reckon. Probably falls within a bell curve.
Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ February 21 2010, 3:29 PM GMTAlso, aggressively sexual laddish jokes don't seem to appeal to most women, so I suppose if you specify closely then there are plenty of little differences.
There's a lot of women who *say* they like Frankie Boyle.
I've noticed that women will often laugh at something which is cute, like a wittle kitten or a smiling baby. Cute ain't funny to this bloke; to me it's just cute.
Yeah, I've been lying about liking Frankie Boyle for years... :/
I would definitely smile about a cute kitten, certainly not a baby. Don't think I'd laugh though. But a cute kitty makes me happy, yes.
I doubt many people laugh at someting that's cute, rather their just happy weirdos.
But if you're talking about comedy, comedy shows and stand up shows then I'd definitely say there was a big difference in tastes between men and women. It's the clever marketing by agents and producers and club owners that has unveiled this big difference, tapping into and even encouraging the huge influx of female punters and female comedians to entertain them. The modern comedy market is proof that we want different things from comedy, as is the success of recent unmacho comedians like McIntyre, Howard, Byrne and Mitchell, among others. Female tastes have had a massive effect on British comedy.
Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ February 21 2010, 4:10 PM GMTThe modern comedy market is proof that we want different things from comedy, as is the success of recent unmacho comedians like McIntyre, Howard, Byrne and Mitchell, among others.
I think you're on to something there, although perhaps the femappeal of McIntyre & Howard is quite different to that of Mitchell.
What we find funny is ultimately dependent on what we know and what we recognise. Even the biggest name stand-ups have small 'test out' gigs sometimes in order to see whether something they've noticed and found humour in is recognised by anyone else. I've seen interviews with people like Lee Evans and Michael McIntyre stating that they've done these and been surprised at some of what they thought was their best material falling completely flat because it wasn't something the audience understood or could relate to.
Anyway, the point is that men and women have understandably different experiences and behaviour, so are going to recognise and identify with different things. It's not necessarily inherent to their gender, but as zooo said, learnt. I also get the impression that men are more likely to 'compromise', as it were, and find something in the 'female humour' to enjoy than women often are with mens'.
I'd agree that humour was "learnt" though I've never noticed any difference between the genders and what they like.
I'm female and probably hang around with more girls than boys but we all tend to like the same things. To be fair, this is probably because we're very similar (hence why we hang around together) so it's probably quite hard to judge.
As for women SAYING they like Frankie Boyle, women don't tend to be offended by dark or caustic humour. I haven't met any that are anyway. Though I'm not sure they go for the "bullying" humour side of things as much? I mean picking on certain people or sects of society.
Even as I type that I'm questioning whether it's actually true...
No difference as far as I can tell, then.