Differences Seen in Men's and Women's Sense of Humor

1904

Best Judges of Humor

It takes a better joke to make a woman smile than it takes to make a man laugh for five minutes. A man will laugh at a stale joke every time, but a stale joke makes a woman feel like weeping.

These are two of the comparisons between the feminine and the masculine senses of humor made by Oreola Williams Haskell in the current number of The Club Woman, the official publication of the General Federation of Women's Clubs.

"One of the differences between man and woman," declares the writer, "and one frequently alluded to by the former, is that he has a strong sense of humor and she has none at all. This truth by woman is accounted for by the fact that her long association with man through the centuries has effectively knocked out whatever festive spirit she once possessed, and man attributes his easily aroused risibilities to a habit acquired while observing the vagaries of the feminine mind.

"Whatever the true explanation may be, it is conceded by all that man would rather laugh than weep, and that woman is at least undecided as to whether she prefers to smile at a stale joke or to attend a tragic play with four pocket handkerchiefs ready to dry her tears.

The writer objects strongly to man's habit of making fun of his wife's shortcomings as a housekeeper to call forth a laugh.

She urges that man's play upon woman's credulity is one of his chief joys, and, speaking of this, Mrs. Haskell declares, "Thus it is seen on what a high plane man indulges his sense of humor. If woman would be his true companion, let her sympathize with and heartily enjoy what amuses and attracts him and appreciate the comic gems of which he is the author. For woman must remember that we are put here to be disciplined, and, though the funny side of life is often the saddest, she must be content to suffer, to pay for the exquisite privilege of living in the same world with him."

Speaking of the various kinds of humor enjoyed by men and women, the writer says, "At the present time man evinces a great fondness for what may be called physical humor. While the petticoated portion of an audience will receive a vaudeville set-to with stolid indifference, what interest it awakens in the kind of people who have a proclivity for rushing out between the acts!

"When the heavy comedian comes out and greets a diminutive companion with such a resounding whack on the back that the latter falls prostrate on the stage, the bass roar of the male voice peals from orchestra circle to highest balcony, while soprano giggle is strangely silent. Again, when an individual whom burnt cork and paint have rendered almost unhuman portrays the inebriate with his zigzag promenade and his hiccoughed utterances, with what responsive glee he is hailed by his own sex!

"Woman lacks the keen intellect to see the delicate wit in pugilistic thumps rained on crouching shoulders and spasmodic kicks that result in nasty and undignified departures from the scene of action. She is also without the power to appreciate the sidesplitting humor of a drunkard's tumbles or a rough-and-tumble fight. It is man alone who can understand just where the comic element comes in and who can enjoy the fine shades of distinction between a punch and a pound, a misstep and a fall, a disagreement and a rumpus.

"But besides physical fun man indulges his love for the spoken, the written and the acted joke. So great indeed, is his fondness for the former that he even bears with equanimity the constant repetition of the same witticisms from one year's end to another."