Amelia Farmer Professor Dunn April 22, 2010 Gender Mini-Research Project: Female v.

Male Comedians For my mini-research project, I decided to do the male versus female comedian observation study. I felt that this study was interesting and important to conduct because I have noticed with my peers that men and women have a completely different sense of humor. I figured this is most likely the case for comedians as well, so I decided to do this project to find out if there was a difference in humor, as well as what these specific differences were. My first prediction for this study is that both men and women will make the majority of their jokes and have more successful jokes when they put down the opposite sex, particularly a spouse or boyfriend/girlfriend. My second prediction is that men will curse more during the course of their stand-up acts than women. Finally, I predict that female comedians will make more self-deprecating or self-criticizing jokes. The method to my observation was simple. I began by watching four different stand up acts, each about ten minutes long. I watched two male comics (Dane Cook and Jerry Seinfeld) and two female comics (Kathy Griffith and Chelsea Handler). The reason I chose these four was because I was very familiar to one of the males and one of the females chosen because I am a fan of their humor, and the other male and female I have either never watched or have not watched often enough to know what theyre typical humor is. I watched and took notes on each of the acts, and was somewhat surprised by what I found. My first prediction, that both men and women make the majority of their jokes/have more successful jokes when they are about the opposite sex, was based off of an article I read in Vanity Fair that stated that male humor prefers the laugh to be at someone elses expense, and understands that life is quite possible a joke to begin with...

Amelia Farmer Professor Dunn April 22, 2010 My prediction about comedians making more jokes about the opposite sex was not supported; however, it is true that comedians make most of their jokes about other people in general. Kathy Griffith made many jokes about gay men, but she made just as many jokes about female celebrities. Chelsea Handler made most of her jokes about herself. Jerry Seinfeld made most of his jokes about people in general, and Dane Cook made his jokes about people in general as well as a specific male. What I observed shows that the assumption that comedians love to make criticizing jokes about their spouse or partner is not necessarily true; however, both male and females have success in making fun of other people. Female comedians did, however, make more jokes about other people and themselves than the male comedians, who made jokes about situations in general, particularly awkward ones. My second prediction, that men curse more during the course of their stand-up routine than females, was proven false as well. During the ten minutes I watched female comedians, each of the female comedians cursed more than five times, and during the males stand-up routines, each of the men cursed less than five times. I am not sure exactly why this would be, but my guess is that female comedians might have to make up more for their humor by cursing if they feel their jokes are not funny enough to stand on their own. When watching the comedians, when any of them cursed (especially the females), the audience appreciated the joke much more. It is possible that the reason females get so many laughs from cursing is because women are expected to be classy, and not sit around and curse all the time like men are expected to do. Since it is unexpected, this makes it more humorous.

Amelia Farmer Professor Dunn April 22, 2010 Most likely, women take on the more masculine personality traits by swearing. Research shows that men are generally perceived as funnier; therefore, the masculine style of personality and speech is what an audience is looking for in a comedian. According to one study, many people continue to perceive swearing as symbolic of masculine qualities (Stapleton, 2003). This fact explains why female comedians would swear more in their stand-up routines; to seem more masculine, and therefore have more success in their humor. This also explains why the female comedians I observed made more jokes about things women dont normally talk about openly like men do, such as using the bathroom or their genitals. Kathy Griffith and Chelsea Handler both made several jokes on these topics which were all followed by intense laughter from the audience. Why would these types of jokes come across more successfully? Is there something wrong with Americans sense of humors? Or do we just simply think masculine topics are more humorous? My third and final prediction was that female comedians would make more selfdeprecating or self-criticizing jokes than male comedians. I found this prediction to be supported by my observations as well as outside research. First, Kathy Griffith was an excellent example of someone who made self-deprecating jokes throughout her routine. She told a story about meeting Lindsay Lohan, describing how they hit it off and Lindsay commented on Kathy Griffiths skills as a comedian. A few weeks later, she ran into Lindsay at a party and said hey, only to be embarrassed by Lindsay rolling her eyes and walking away, as if she did not know who Kathy was. Kathy Griffith joked and laughed at herself while telling this story to the audience and it was quite successful, as the audience laughed and enjoyed the joke at her expense. Chelsea Handler seems to do the

Amelia Farmer Professor Dunn April 22, 2010 same too, making jokes about several things; how much she drinks being one of them. Most people would not talk about this so openly, but as a comedian, she gets most of her success by using this kind of humor. The male comedians I observed did not joke about themselves at all. Research has found that more successful comedians are those who are not considered pretty, but those who have some sort of flaw in physical features that they can base their humor off of. In one magazine article, comedian Margaret Cho says, I remember seeing beautiful girls do stand-up, and it was a disaster every time if youre good-looking, people really dont want to listen to you (Kohen). After reading this I considered the two female comedians I observed, as well as others I have heard of before; Kathy Griffith and Chelsea Handler are both considered attractive people; however, the way they were dressed in their stand-up made their appearances more neutral. Both wore pants and a simple shirt, just an every day outfit; not a fancy dress like a singer or talk show host would wear. Consider other female comedians, such as Roseanne or Ellen DeGeneres. Ellen wears her hair in a boy-style haircut with pantsuits all the time, and Roseanne is a larger woman who does not seem to care much about her appearance. This evidence goes back to the idea that female comedians are trying to seem more masculine while onstage, because by being pretty and feminine, their jokes do not come across as successfully. There are some impressive ladies out there. Most of them, though, when you come to review the situation, are hefty or dykey or Jewish, or some combo of the three (Hitchens, 2007). This is definitely true in some cases of female comedians, and they use those qualities about them that in society might be viewed as negative to create their more successful jokes and base their humor off of.

Amelia Farmer Professor Dunn April 22, 2010 In general, both the male and female comedians got success out of making fun of other people. I found that the females, however, can get away with making fun of certain things that might be found offensive if coming from a male comedian. For example, Kathy Griffith talks about her gays, or gay friends, that she hangs out with. She goes on to joke about what they wear and how they act. If these same jokes were coming from a guy, then I feel that they would not be as successful. Chelsea Handler makes several jokes in her routines about midgets, calling them her little nuggets. Coming from Chelsea, these jokes are highly successful among the audience. I could not quite determine whether a joke about that would be as successful among the male comedians, mainly because they did not make as many jokes that were borderline offensive as the females. It could be possible that as female comedians, they can get away with saying more things than the male comedians would. This observation study taught me a lot more about the world of gender communication that I would never have noticed otherwise. I tend to see all comedians in a similar light, as people who make their living laughing at themselves and others; however, it was interesting to be able to break down the differences. Once you look for them, they are pretty obvious and consistent across a few different comedians. The results of my observation show that there are extreme differences in the humor of males versus females.

Amelia Farmer Professor Dunn April 22, 2010 References Backlund, P., & Ivey, D. (2008). Gender Speak: Personal Effectiveness in Gender Communication, Fourth Edition. Pearson Education, Inc. Hitchens, C. (2007, January). Why Women aren't funny. Retrieved from http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2007/01/hitchens200701? printable=true&currentPage=all Kohen, Y. (n.d.). We'll show you whose funny. Pretty Comedians, Retrieved from http://www.marieclaire.com/celebrity-lifestyle/celebrities/interviews/femalecomedians-funny-actresses Stapleton, K. (2003). Gender and Swearing: A Community Practice. Women & Language, 26(2), 22-33. Retrieved from Communication & Mass Media Complete database.