Modified On December 8, 2006
Rumpled British wit Christopher Hitchens holds forth on the subject of humor and gender in this article for Vanity Fair (the magazine SHECKYmagazine called “Tiger Beat for people with post-graduate degrees”).
Why are men, taken on average and as a whole, funnier than women? Well, for one thing, they had damn well better be. 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.
Women have no corresponding need to appeal to men in this way. They already appeal to men, if you catch my drift.[…]
The Female Half Of The Staff says it should be re-titled “Why Christopher Hitchens Can’t Get It Up Around Funny, Hot Chicks.”
Hitchens’ piece makes a nice companion to Bonnie McFarlane‘s last column for SHECKYmagazine, “Women Aren’t Funny.”