Humphrey's serious about funny

Humphrey loves a good sense of humor - and readers know the most hilarious dog at Humphrey's daycare is of course Oliver the Maltese. Humphrey admires his impeccable timing, wit, and sense of the absurd. Online, he enjoys Funny or Die (his all-time favorite being is the real Beasite Boys video). And of course, all readers know of his long-standing affection for the work of Dr. Stephen T. Colbert in all forms of media.

How could Humph possibly discuss humor without ups to Groucho?

Humphrey has acted as a sounding board since his Guardian embarked on some satirical work in recent months. He delighted at the subtle references to Nikolai Gogol's Overcoat as a symptom of a bureaupathology virus epidemic in one of her most recent articles [link to come]. And he snickered when he read the story detailing the bust of clandestine Tide labs during the time when the media was reporting a rash of laundry detergent thefts in the United States. He nearly fell for the "stages of grading" attributed to a fictional teacher hotline (he swears he has witnessed denial and bargaining during term paper season!).

But he noticed that, his Guardian aside, this was another male-dominated pursuit! When Humprhey thinks satire, David Sedaris and Steve Martin come to mind - all men. In fact, the Wikipedia list of modern satirists only includes one or two women!

Some years ago, journalist Christopher Hitchens published hotly-debated essay in Vanity Fair titled “Why Women Aren’t Funny.” He postulated that because humor is a sign of intelligence, men don’t actually want women to be funny. This was actually substantiated by research conducted by Dr. Rod Martin in the US and Canada. Men want women as an audience, not competition. To that end, many women may suppress humor in an attempt not to appear too bright and therefore threatening to men.  Additional research conducted at Aston University’s School of Language & Social Sciences found that in workplace settings, 90% of jokes made by men were met with immediate laughter, and they tended to be three times more likely than women to kid around. Conversely, women (who, incidentally, tended to use self-deprecating humor) found 80% of their jokes met with painful silence.

Perhaps we are conditioned to perpetuate all of these stereotypes about humor. Humphrey is going to re-think his beliefs by observing all the females during his next visit to daycare. Perhaps he's had it (unintentionally) wrong all along.

In the end, Humphrey knows it's important to laugh each day, regardless of the source of humor. Ha!
You've been a great audience. He'll be here all week; try the veal. Good night!