Humor: what it is for men and women

(8 Oct 2013)

(This is a light-hearted article meant for laugh. The writer neither practices nor advocates gender bias.)

Of interest is the observation that marriage jokes historically have been created to describe the sorry state of the man. There is an underlying admission that women are privileged to be married and men are doomed. Why don’t we know enough two-liners that speak of the opposite? Do women, in general, find their marriage more divine than men do, or is it that men simply have sharper sense of humor?

Amongst the globally recognized good traits of a man is his sense of humor. Someone who can tease or pull his female companion’s leg is perceived as eligible in some quarters. Such men usually make good friends with ladies. Guys also know humor is an essential armory they can’t do without if they wish to sweep girls off their feet.

Men make fun of almost everything known to men – be it women or films or sports or anything considered worthy of a man’s taste. Women in this department are pretty conservative; they’re sensitive to the extent they won’t crack a joke on something men would find classically funny. Every man has a closely guarded world he shares only with his male friends; it could prove too risky to expose those humorous shades of his with female companions, chiefly because of the fear of being misunderstood and getting hurt. The fallout of these potential slip ups could be too hazardous and the damage control too time-consuming. Hence there are two broad types of jokes – one that is something like a joke, and the other The Joke.

Coming back to the point of marriage jokes, it’s not true men don’t love their women. They of course do! But it’s in the very nature of a guy to sometimes be casual in his approach to life and relationships. Whether from Mars and Venus or from Neptune and Pluto, men and women essentially are different creatures. A guy therefore finds it absolutely okay to say, ‘Honey, you look fat’; the same guy would also not hesitate to say, ‘You look hot tonight’. A woman is far more ‘serious’ about the business of marriage or of relationships. She won’t find it amusing if her man jokingly said something she thought was insulting to the relationship; but she would be coy if the same partner paid her a fake beauty tribute. To the guy, both are expressions of humor, but he would perhaps never be able to convince his ladylove as to what is humorous about them.

It’s a global concern. Guys want to open up and share their funny side to ladies. The problem however is that since most of the man-jokes are about women, chances are – and women have proved they’re up against it – they’d be perceived as vulgar and distasteful. 

An appeal to the female fraternity: men wish to invite you to please shed your dogma of what is and what is not humorous. There’s a wonderful world out there waiting to be explored that celebrates playing prank on the way you look, the way you talk, and the way you think you are. The richest variant of humor is one that glorifies the peculiarity of oneself!