Volume 6, Issue #9
November 12, 2005

"Make me laugh and maybe I'll do you"
By Michael Kwan

A little while back, a old high school friend of mine told me about an article in the October 31st edition of Maclean’s. In it, it states:

In a recent studies, men and women are in complete agreement that, when it comes to choosing a romantic partner, a good sense of humour is crucial. The twist is in how the two genders define this quality. According to a new McMaster University study, a typical woman believes a good sense of humour is the ability to "generate" high-quality humour (i.e. to make her laugh). Conversely, the average man defines it as a

woman's ability to "appreciate" his particular brand of humour (i.e. to laugh at his jokes). "We found that men don't care at all about women's humour production," says psychology professor Sigal Balshine, a co-author of the study...As such, in good old Darwinian fashion, men are constantly competing among themselves for the title of the funniest guy when there are pretty women around to impress.......A woman who posses a typically male sense of humour (one that is cutting or competitive) can be turn-off - and not only because she may outperform a man on his own turf. She will also come across as a woman who wouldn't be easily seduced of impressed.

My friend said that this was “so chauvinistic.”

To that, I replied:
Based on my own personal experience, a guy with a "good sense of humour" is quick-witted and can easily adapt their particular brand of humour to any given situation. You can see how this type of ability would be desirable in a hunter-gatherer type social structure. The male goes out hunting and can make quick (but good, intelligent, and useful) decisions that fit the situation. By contrast, typically, an ability to adapt is not as "necessary" in the female as she would be doing most of the gathering and taking care of the homestead. In this way, the more "malleable" or "obedient" the female is, the better she can get along with her mate, and thus, the better their prospects of survival. If she doesn't like or appreciate his efforts, per se, and they are always driving each other up the wall, the chronic stress weakens their immune system, shortens their lives, and reduces the likelihood of having healthy, happy progeny. All that being said, things are different now in a more (though nowhere near completely) egalitarian society, but our inborn animalistic instinctual tendencies still drive many of our behaviours and decisions, including mate selection. Just my two cents.

In a society that is moving toward total equality between men and women, many of our behaviours and tendencies are still driven by hormones and instinct: that’s a fact. Men, typically, will always be competitive. Amongst themselves, they will always want to be the smartest, fastest, strongest, and funniest, as the case may be. A woman who is smarter, faster, stronger and funnier… well, makes most men feel insecure about themselves, whether they are willing to admit it or not.

Of course, there are exceptions to every rule, and this description of what it means to have “a sense of humour” is far from being a rule. Just think of it as food for thought… or laughs.

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