Put the bachelorettes in the back of the room…

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on November 8th, 2005

AP reports that the results of a study showed that “Women May Enjoy Humor More, if It’s Funny,” at least that’s what the headline says. We’re not scientists, but we still like to think we can understand an AP summary of a scientific experiment.

While there is a lot of overlap between how men and women process humor, the differences can help account for the fact that men gravitate more to one-liners and slapstick while women tend to use humor more in narrative form and stories, Reiss said.

That we can buy.

AP Science Writer Randolph E. Schmid had the unenviable task of summarizing something that was written in the MEGO language of typical scientists, but we’re certain he captured the essence. We’re not so sure we agree with the conclusions reached by the researchers, however. Of course we’re not sure what it means!

“Women appeared to have less expectation of a reward, which in this case was the punch line of the cartoon,” said Reiss. “So when they got to the joke’s punch line, they were more pleased about it.”

Huh? The Female Half says that it makes women sound either cynical or stupid. Neither of which is very flattering.

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