Why Does Society Tell Us That Men Are Funnier Than Women?
Spoiler Alert: Women Are Just as Funny as Men
By Allie Parker
I know what you’re thinking. Another article about misogyny? I can assure you… you’re absolutely correct. Buckle up, buttercup.
I did theatre for most of my life and I am now a member of an improv group (I was about to defend myself and say that those things are cooler than they sound, but considering you’re reading this article, you’re probably also a theatre kid or at least act like one). Because of this, I’ve witnessed many instances in which men have received uproarious laughter for a mediocre display of comedy, like the timeless classic of making a fart joke. Okay, that’s a bad example because I’m a 5-year-old and I think farts are funny as hell, but you get my point. Don’t get me wrong, laughter is a wonderful thing, but not so much when we only laugh in response to a man’s jokes. Women are hilarious, and some of the funniest people I know, so why doesn’t society think so?
While researching this question, I stumbled upon a 2007 article titled “Why Women Aren’t Funny” in the very scholarly magazine (not), “Vanity Fair.” It consisted of some crap that went something like this: Man must make woman laugh. She think man funny and desirable. Woman doesn’t need be funny. Woman pretty and has good body for baby-making. Man automatically like her without knowing a single thing about her personality. In conclusion, woman not funny. The End.
After gagging and clicking out of that article, I found a study from 2019 titled “Men Are Funnier than Women under a Condition of Low Self-Efficacy, but Women Are Funnier than Men under a Condition of High Self-Efficacy” (Caldwell et al. 2020). The study was conducted by having participants create captions for cartoons and rank their own comedic ability. Then, another group ranked the humorousness of those captions. The results displayed that women with low confidence in their comedic abilities had lower rankings for their captions than the low confidence men, but women with high confidence in their comedic abilities had higher rankings than the high confidence men. Essentially, the reason why people think women aren’t funny may be because some women actually lack the confidence to be funny, which circles back to a deeper concern: society does everything in its power to bring women’s confidence down. The article mentions that it’s a similar circumstance in other fields, particularly those that are STEM-related. It’s not that women don’t want to be mathematicians or engineers, it’s that society judges women who are interested in stereotypically masculine domains, which lowers their self-efficacy in STEM. As previously mentioned, society has told us that men are the funny ones, which automatically lowers women’s belief that they, too, can be funny.
For most of my life, I’ve never considered myself to be a funny person. And yet, the trait most often used to describe me by my friends and family is “funny.” I, myself, lacked self-efficacy in my comedic skills; it wasn’t until a year and a half ago when I began college that I realized my humor is truly one of my greatest assets. It’s how I made some of my closest friends and how I power my way through anxiety. It’s what got me on an improv team this year, which allowed me to see even more clearly that I can make people laugh. And equally important, I can make myself laugh.
I’m really proud that I’ve come to appreciate my sense of humor, but still, there’s something that bugs me about the kinds of things I receive laughter for. Particularly when I’m performing, I’ve noticed that if I get a laugh, it’s because of some clever comment. Don’t get me wrong, that’s always flattering (and probably a bit too externally validating), but sometimes I just want to be laughed at for making an absolute fool of myself. A lot of female comedians are respected because their jokes are complex, witty, and often more niche; it’s as though society is telling women, “Okay, you’re finally allowed to be funny, but only in the way that you’re smart and therefore funny, because there’s no way you’re actually just naturally funny”. Maybe I’m a bit cynical, but I really do believe there’s pressure on women to craft more intricate comedy.
I am hopeful for the future of funny women. There appears to be a rise of more opportunities for women to express themselves through comedy, especially with the help of social media. There are so many women who have the potential to unlock the funniest version of themselves; they just need to know that society will allow them to do so. If laughter is the best medicine, then women may just be the best doctors. Wait, no, pharmacists? Drug dealers? Anyways, whatever they are, they're funny.
Works Cited
Caldwell, T. L., & Wojtach, P. (2019). Men are funnier than women under a condition of low self-efficacy but women are funnier than men under a condition of high self-efficacy. Sex Roles, 83(5-6), 338–352. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-019-01109-w