What makes our life interesting? Humor is definitely one answer. But why is that men are much funnier than women?
Researchs show that women use humor to create solidarity (Hay, 1995:3), while men tend to make a joke to create a social image. Whilst boys are expected to amuse others, ladies are not. Expectations to be attractive make males funny. Following factors prove that men are considered to be more jocular.
1. The reason why boys make a joke consistently is to draw ladies’ attention towards themselves. One of qualities which females are seeking in their soul mates is a sense of joke and joy. This keen interest encourages males joke more and more. Even though female spend much time with same sex, funny guys are the persons that ladies have strong relationship with. Hall (Cathy, 2016) believes that humor is the sign of advertising male’s intelligence. To make a witty humor requires to think twice about it, thus, funny men must be witty and informative enough. To find comic themes and connect them to each other, men use their creativity. Using brain logic is the reason why females find comic males charming. By the same token, laughter bears advantages such as keeping the person healthy and supporting to live longer. Thereby, since laughter impresses female and bears advantages in health, women find funny men as an ideal partner.
2. Men make more jokes because they love to tease and jeer through aggressive words (Falanga et al., 2013:217). The slang words or phrases increase rating - most male comedians get high ratings from movies. For instance, the famous Turkish comedy series, “Recep Ivedik” is full of slang and vulgar words that actually bring tears of joy to everyone. In general, male does not want to be disrespectful, or insult any women present; however, to make a joke they use vulgarity towards the same sex (Hay, 1995:88). For example, to bring joyful atmosphere males hurt someone in front of a lot of people. In consequence, to capture a higher status, boys demean even their friends through humoristic speaking style.
3. The very fact, the ratio of using fillers between female and male sex is 44.6 and 55.4; therefore, the amount of fillers used by men affected their fluency and confidence in conversation (Subrayan et al., 2010:24). However, research by Hay shows that it is the result of being so self-confident that male use more roleplay and wordplay (1995:185). Ability to act different types of roles indicates that indeed, males are not jumpy or shy. When boys tell an anecdote, they use appropriate non-verbal communication types that hold audience’s attention. Additionally, what most males do is to approach hegemonically and to keep leadership in their hands. The natural sense of self-confidence that males are born with complements their roleplay capacity and brings entertaining moments. Eventually, making jokes is the main way of maintaining hegemony for men.
To put in a nutshell, society appreciates males substantially funnier than female. In terms of impressing females, using informal phrases, and having a strong sense of confidence, males own a deeper insight into humor.
Gunay Ismayilzadeh
