Humour and Suffering

Another little medical nugget here that supports my theory (wait for the explanation, really...) that women don't tell jokes as well as men.

It's an old stereotype, and like a lot of stereotypes you aren't allowed to say, and it's vile and filthy and there's a HUGE grain of truth in it. Not all women, certainly, are incapable of telling jokes, and they're not necessarily incapable of humour when it is the case. Similarly, there are many men out there that just cannot deliver a punchline.

However, on average, men are better at jokes than women, and this study shows you why. All humour, when you analyse it deeply enough, laughs at someone, picks on someone's stupidity, or clumsiness or even just plain bad luck. This is why we are all more comfortable with humour from someone we know can laugh at themselves as much as anyone else, after all.

But men enjoy other people's misfortune. It's the competitive nature coming to the fore, it's 'he's just lost points and I haven't' mentality. I don't have to be good I just have to be better than the next guy. And so we enjoy jokes on a level that many women don't.

It doesn't make us bad people, it just makes us men.