Humour 'comes from testosterone'

reply to post by watch_the_rocks


Oh crap! You posted this before I did. But never mind. My thread is in BTS.

Anyway, I'm thinking this discovery might explain why women prefer men 'who have a sense of humour'. More virile, plus with enough smarts to mask it.

Here's the link to the actual study, if anyone's interested:
Sex, aggression, and humour: responses to unicycling

Seems the good doctor is thinking of the same thing:

The existence of an overwhelming sex difference inevitably raises the possibility of biological advantage, in particular whether male humour enhances female sexual preference. Marty Feldman, a notoriously unprepossessing comic, had no doubt of it, and Diane Keaton said she was mostly won over by men who made her laugh. Darwin’s Descent of Man defined the dominant evolutionary role of sexual selection.1 The components of mate attraction are becoming defined2—the male woos and the female selects—and male humour seems to be involved.3 The present finding that humour may reflect androgen induced aggression could provide a Darwinian explanation both of its attraction and its continued use as a sexually useful tool.

Edit: fixed broken link

[edit on 21-12-2007 by Beachcoma]

I knew it, I knew there had to be a scientific explanation, I always knew I was funny. However when I would try and make my wife laugh she just rolled her eyes. It is so simple, yet makes me feel so much better, that is it I am quitting my job and hitting the road as a comedian. Starvation here I come.

reply to post by Beachcoma



Well, I think it's quite obvious that MOST women prefer a "funny" guy over a serious, crabby one. Hell, I'm a good looking dude, but my attitude and my disposition tends to be a turn off to most women. I admittedly tend to be somewhat serious and business like in most of my dealings with others. That is not exactly an attribute of a "lady's man." However, I don't think such things prove that if "You don't have a sense of humor, you must have low testosterone." Like I said, that is sort of like psychiatrists saying, "If you're not perpetually happy, you must have mental issues." It's all garbage, as far as I can tell.

I think it may be a little more subtle than that. Testosterone is a "risk taking" hormone. Humour is a somewhat risky thing. You can flop, you can be very funny. More test, less fear of flopping (also better verbal skills)...

Then I guess that means Richard Pryor was freakin' Hercules, but with a 'fro.

Peace

Sounds like BS to me. Men who take steroids are not usually funny. Have you ever heard of Roid Rage??? I guess what we have to figure out is what they mean by Sense of Humor. I would guess someone with a lot of testosterone would be good at making fun of someone else - to them it would seem funny but to someone else it might seem cruel...

Whereas a good number of comedians are successful by making fun of themselves and they are usually not the steroid freak type - Of course the testosterone head might laugh at the self deprecating comic while others might be laughing with him.


[edit on 21-12-2007 by CyberTruth]

reply to post by CyberTruth


Yeah that Barry Bonds is a screaming riot, isn't he? I guess everybody on The Office is juicing.

Yeah, Chris Benoit was a laugh fest as well. Honestly, I think this "testosterone makes you funny ," stuff is garbage.



[edit on 21-12-2007 by SpeakerofTruth]

reply to post by watch_the_rocks


OMG dose this mean I've been sleeping with a guy for the last 3 years?????

My GF is quite funny & can litterally make me Pee myself with some of the spontanious Witty Wisecracks she can come out with.

She's pretty damn good at comebacks too....lol

WoW!! I'm getting pretty sceared now. I'm gunna have to have a good look nextime we're in the shower..

Originally posted by CyberTruth
Sounds like BS to me. Men who take steroids are not usually funny. Have you ever heard of Roid Rage??? [edit on 21-12-2007 by CyberTruth]

Yeah, Just look at Rainier Wolfcastle (McBain)....

[edit on 12/21/2007 by Ironclad]

Originally posted by SpeakerofTruth
Honestly, I think this "testosterone makes you funny ," stuff is garbage.

Both the news article and the link I provided are talking about 'disparaging humour', not general humour. Read the study in the link I provided. You'll understand what sort of humour the Professor is talking about. He provided a list of the 'humorous responses' to him riding a unicycle around town.

The thesis is quite compelling if you've read it.

Edit to add: It's not 'humour comes from testosterone' per se as the article puts it. But it arose from that as one is growing up. I'm fairly certain intelligence and other social factors come in play as well to shape the sort of humour a person comes up with. The key point here is testosterone's effects during development into adulthood.

[edit on 21-12-2007 by Beachcoma]

Uh-oh... I'm German, I'm female, and I used to do stand-up comedy for a while... I guess that makes me a freak of nature. I should have my hormone levels tested soon... I was already wondering about that hair growing in my ears. I guess I should also better not push too hard on the john -- who knows, my inverted d*** might pop out.

He suggested men might respond aggressively because they see the other unicycling man as a threat, attracting female attention away from themselves.
"This would be particularly challenging for young males entering the breeding market and thus it does not surprise me that their responses were the more threatening."

No stupid, we're not threatened. It's just that you can be sure if a man is sitting on a unicycle, later on his face will be buried in a pillow.

This study stinks. I don't think humor has anything to do with testosterone, although I have noticed that most female comics should be slapped and handed a mop.

It could have something to do with estrogen...

This is interesting, perhaps when some real studies are done we'll get some more information.

haha no wonder lisa lampanelli is so damn funny....have you ever seen that chick....makes me wonder why she wasnt in the mitchell report...im suprised this hasnt gotten moved to bts..anyways cool lil find lol

Makes sense to me.

Most female comics are brash and, to be frank, disgusting. Jokes about periods and a wave of sexist retorts about how useless men are are not funny. The best comics in the world are always men.

Some people in this thread seem quick to debunk this without thinking about it or reading it.

I can actually see the advantage of a sense of humour in sexual selection and it isn't too far fetched to correlate a womans desire for a funny man with an innate desire to find a good mate.

Obviously, it isn't the only factor involved in selection, but every woman I have ever slept with has been partially seduced by my sense of humour, according to user feedback anyway...

Originally posted by Beachcoma

Both the news article and the link I provided are talking about 'disparaging humour', not general humour. Read the study in the link I provided. You'll understand what sort of humour the Professor is talking about.

So the study explains why jocks laugh at geeks? I can accept that.

Testosterone is a very misunderstood hormone, and one often demonised by the media.

Originally posted by Sunsetspawn

It could have something to do with estrogen...

Estrogen is not a hormone but the name of a class of hormones. The "female" equivalent of testosterone would be estradiol, although both hormones are present in either gender in differing amounts.

I don't see too much of a problem with the theory. Men are always the ones pulling pranks and joking around. And when it comes to the few women comedians there are, most of them are lesbians. So that kind of further proves the theory.