I Like His Sense of Humor

The question Professor McIntire-Strasburg posed to us on Wednesday still circulates in my mind. What can one offer when faced with the general quandary of why male comics are more successful than female ones? The answer is as hard to pin down as a complete definition of comedy. For every supposition, there exists notable counterarguments and exceptions. In class, I proposed that the answer might lie in our upbringing, culture’s constant discouragement of unladylike behavior (often the essence of stand-up) stunting girls’ comedic ability. I could use the rest of this entry to explain reasons behind the theory, or counter objections to it, but really, we have already spent a great deal of class discussion doing that. To avoid redundancy, I scoured the internet for a different take on this sticky question, and the following serves as an interesting reversal of what one would typically think.

In the article, “Why Women Aren’t Funny,” Christopher Hitchens offers an interesting proposition about male supremacy over female comedians. He writes:

Why are men, taken on average and as a whole, funnier than women? Well, for one thing, they had damn well better be. The chief task in life that a man has to perform is that of impressing the opposite sex, and Mother Nature (as we laughingly call her) is not so kind to men. In fact, she equips many fellows with very little armament for the struggle. An average man has just one, outside chance: he had better be able to make the lady laugh….Women have no corresponding need to appeal to men in this way. They already appeal to men, if you catch my drift.

What is novel (and nice) about this theory, is its shift from the negative, “women aren’t funny” to a more positive, “women aren’t funny because they don’t have to be.” In Hitchens thought, men are funny because there genetic survival depends on it, and when one depends on a skill for survival, they tend to develop it much more and far better than someone who does not. In some ways, I agree with Hitchens. In the situation he prefaces his article with, he points out that when asked why they like their significant other, most women claim it is because he has a sense of humor. In my own experience talking with friends and hearing others, what he states rings true: having an ability to make the other laugh tops a woman’s list of desirable qualities, and therefore, it is no wonder men prevail in the humor department.

The only drawback I see in Mr. Hitchen’s argument is that he is operating from a stereotyped view of men. Being a man, he obviously has more authority than I do on the subject, however, his declaration that women “already appeal to men,” is not a solid assumption. His claim supposes men are of only a “one-track” mindset, and have no other criteria in the women they choose. Certainly, a woman completely devoid of a sense of humor is not a pleasant companion, so to say women do not need it is presumptive. Then again, if one believes humor is not so high on the male list of desirable qualities, the argument regains its previous strength, since it claims that is the exact reason women do not need to develop their comedic abilities like men do. Although superficially what Hitchens proposes makes complete sense, in the end, his generalized view of men makes me question how viable his theory is.

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The article (especially for this course) is a worthy read, and very much recommended for anyone who likes to debate the issue of male vs. female comedy. Also, because I have only so much room in a given blog post, I could not go into every detail Hitchens raises in his writing, but he does elaborate further on the above point. What he concludes really made me start thinking about how I see male comedians in comparison to female ones, and though I did not always agree with what he said, I am glad I got to read a different (and male) answer to the question initially asked of the class on Wednesday.

Hitchens, Christopger. "Why Women Aren't Funny." www.vanityfair.com. January 2007. Vanity Fair. 26 March 2009. http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2007/01/hitchens200701?currentPage=1.