In the course of my online rummaging, I recently stumbled on to what I thought was a pretty interesting opinion piece on (of all places) Vanity Fair's website. The article was titled "Why Women Aren't Funny" (charged title, I know) and was written by Christopher Hitchens. Since it kind of drags on, I'm just gonna post a few excerpts from it, but the entire article can be found here.

The article seeks to find the reasons behind the assertion that men are dominating the world of humor. Whether or not that's true is highly debatable, but the opening of the article rang very true to me:

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Be your gender what it may, you will certainly have heard the following from a female friend who is enumerating the charms of a new (male) squeeze: "He's really quite cute, and he's kind to my friends, and he knows all kinds of stuff, and he's so funny … " ... However, there is something that you absolutely never hear from a male friend who is hymning his latest (female) love interest: "She's a real honey, has a life of her own … [interlude for attributes that are none of your business] … and, man, does she ever make 'em laugh."

One thing the article doesn't bring up but that I think most of us can agree on is that it tends to be the guys who are the class clowns. In my experience, they're the clowns at about a 50:1 ratio. Of course, once you accept these things as truths (and you might totally disagree with them), you have to look at the 80 million possible reasons why they're the case. In the class clown scenario, maybe the guys are just way more desperate for attention than the girls, and it has nothing to do with innate humor skills. Hitchens offers similar possibilities for his dating scenario:

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The chief task in life that a man has to perform is that of impressing the opposite sex, and Mother Nature (as we laughingly call her) is not so kind to men. In fact, she equips many fellows with very little armament for the struggle. An average man has just one, outside chance: he had better be able to make the lady laugh. Making them laugh has been one of the crucial preoccupations of my life. If you can stimulate her to laughter—I am talking about that real, out-loud, head-back, mouth-open-to-expose-the-full-horseshoe-of-lovely-teeth, involuntary, full, and deep-throated mirth; the kind that is accompanied by a shocked surprise and a slight (no, make that a loud) peal of delight—well, then, you have at least caused her to loosen up and to change her expression. I shall not elaborate further.

Whether or not you agree that men have an edge in the world of humor, I think it's hard to deny that men, much more than women, consider humor important when attracting the opposite sex. We guys realize that you won't just see our curves and fall head-over-heels for us, so we figure we need an extra edge. Plus, I can totally relate to what Hitchens is saying...making girls laugh is pretty much the ultimate goal in my life, and I think a lot of guys can relate to that. It could even be argued that when it comes to the world of romance, being hilarious is a cultural necessity for men.

It's also hard to deny that there's still more male comedians, male comedy writers, male sketch comics, etc. out there. In all fairness, though, the reason for that could simply be because of retarded posts like this one.

Hitchens goes on to theorize about why guys find humor such a crucial part of life, and in doing so makes more generalizations than Joey Dauben on a good day (my personal favorite is that men are terrified of women's ability to produce babies, and they use satire to make light of what they fear).

One more question I want to pose: do men want women to be funny? I know a lot of guys (and I think I'm guilty of this myself) would feel we'd lose what little edge we had if the girls we were trying to crack jokes to were able to crack equal or better ones right back.

So there, I think I've said all I want to. Now, discuss: are men really funnier than women? Is it more necessary for men than women to be funny to attract the opposite sex? Is the shortage of female comedians out there due to stereotypes keeping women out of the business, or something else?

The best quality a guy can have is the ability to hold a really good conversation. I love it when a guy makes me think and challanges me. I think that's really great.

Saddly, I'm single and no guy wants me. Further, most people at my school hate me. Sooo... perhaps college?

Alright, from my experiences guys do have more of a sense of humour.

For example, my bf and his/my best friend played a prank on me.

Basically the short story of it was that they pretended to be mad at eachother and my best friend told me that it was because my bf cheated on me with his sister (my friends sister not my bf's) and he walked in on them.

Anyway the convinced me of this. when I found this was a joke I laughed so hard. I mean, thats the type of sense of humour they have and I'm cool with it :P

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no good girl there to appreciate them.

come south for four years... wait better yet go to U of A, Anchorage I'll see you there in year

In all my years, I've never come across a girl who's had much of a sense of humor. Perhaps somewhere there's a girl like that, but I haven't seen her.

Well, that's actually wrong. I know lots of girls with great sense of humor (they appreciate my dry wit, at least), but none that actually crack any good jokes or point out funny things in life (which is what gets me the laughs). In short, no girl I know would make a great comedian. Do I mind? No, not really. My girlfriend is no different, but she appreciates my jokes (as off the wall as they can sometimes be) and that's all I need.

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Originally posted by ampmaster:

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Girls also want a guy who's commited and honest and attractive and crap.

check, check and check

Poor amp... so many good qualities, no good girl there to appreciate them.

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Girls also want a guy who's commited and honest and attractive and crap.

check, check and check

Well, you two are giving me hope. People always tell me that I'm really funny... although I'm sorry to say that I don't have a stand up routine.

This is really interesting though, because girls definitely like guys who can make them laugh. I'd never though about why there are more men comedians in that light though...

Yes women like funny. But funny alone won't get you far. Girls also want a guy who's commited and honest and attractive and crap.

I would love to be with a funny woman. It would be awesome, to joke together is one of the best things a couple can do together. I want a woman who can bug me as much as i bug her, who can make jokes as fast as i can and get all the jokes i can make. That would be awesome

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do men want women to be funny?

yes in short. I want girls to get my jokes laugh and then make them right back. Comedy is more fun if your not the only person making jokes

as to women finding humor attractive... where are these women when I'm looking for date? I am widely regarded as a humorus guy (I even have a 16 minute standup piece!) but when I'm looking for a date...*chirping crickets*... the funny doesn't seem to help