Now, I don’t really want to go opening this can of worms – I hate both cans and worms – but I just stumbled across this little ‘study’, the instigator of which believes that humour stems from aggression caused by testosterone. Ergo, he jumped on his unicycle (and no, I’m not speaking metaphorically) to prove his point.
Uh…I genuinely am curious to hear your thoughts on this. Couldn’t his findings (that most women who saw him shouted words of encouragement while most guys shouted snide remarks or put-downs) just mean that women – and yes, I’m generalising, but that seems the gist of the study – have a kneejerk reaction to encourage, while men have a kneejerk reaction to mock?
And another question – even if you consider this mocking ‘funny’, does a quantity of reactions necessarily equate to a quality? I don’t know about you, but I can think of quite a few people I’ve met in my life who may crack jokes all the time…without necessarily hitting the funny bone.
Thoughts?