Mary Stanton

Ms. Bassett
ENC 2135
13 February 2016
Research-in-Progress Report
Final Research Question: Why does sexism exist in the comedy industry?
Bibliography:
Benjamin, Kathy. 4 Ways Were Programmed to Think Women Arent Funny. Weird
World. Cracked, 21 Jan. 2014. Web. 13 Feb. 2016
This article colloquially states many of the major themes found in the conclusions of the
more scientific or scholarly articles I was able to read. It discusses the societal reasons
that women are not encouraged to pursue comedy, which seems to be the major reason
why there is sexism in the comedy industry. The article is very similar in content to the
scholarly and scientific articles I have found, but more accessible for audiences like me,
who are not scholars or scientists, to get the same information delivered in a neater, more
concise, simpler package.

Hay, Jennifer. Functions of Humor in the Conversations of Men and Women. Journal
of Pragmatics 6.32 (2000): 709-742. Web. 13 Feb. 2016.
This article is similar in structure to the other scholarly articles, as it is about an
experiment determining humors relationship to gender. This experiment, though, came to
different conclusions. It looked at the place of humor amongst groups of only women,
groups of only men, and mixed groups. It found that humor was much more a part of

finding solidarity among women than men. Women joked more than men did to relate to
each other. For my research, this only serves to prove my point. Women enjoy humor
more than men do, so in groups of only women, they joke with each other. Men joke
because women enjoy humor more, so in groups of only other men, their joking should
be less. Everyone tries to be funny around women, because as the other articles have
stated, womens pleasure centers in their brain are much more susceptible to humor than
mens.

Azim, Eiman, et al. Sex differences in brain activation elicited by humor. Proceedings
of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 102.45 (2005): n.
pag. Web. 12 Feb. 2016.
This article discusses the processing of humor in male and female brains, elicited through
an experiment that entailed monitoring the brain while the participant read the funny
pages. The study gleaned that women derive more pleasure from humor than men do.
This is useful in my research because it provides a biological reason that men may be
encouraged to pursue comedy, rather than just a societal reason as indicated in my other
sources. Because women derive more pleasure from humor, it can be assumed that having
a sense of humor is a trait they might look for in a possible partner. This helps to explain
the disproportionate amount of men entering the comedy industry.

Kohn, N., et al. Gender Differences in the Neural Correlates of Humor Processing:
Implications for Different Processing Modes. Neuropsychologia 49.5 (2011): 888-897.
Web. 13 Feb. 2016.

This study, very much like the previous study, looked at the brain of men and women
while experiencing humor to see which parts of the brain were activated. It found that
women and men do generally process humor differently. All the articles, scholarly or not,
have been agreeing on this general point that there is a difference in the way that men and
women view humor. On the surface, this may seem counterpoint to my argument that the
sexism in the comedy industry is without warrant, and that women are just as funny as
men, but in fact, this article only proves more to me that women could indeed, on
average, be funnier than men. If societal implications did not dissuade women from
pursuing comedy, the parts of their brain that are listed within this article as activated
when processing humor lend themselves to joke writing much more than the parts listed
as activated for men.

Martin, Rod A., et al. Individual Differences in Uses of Humor and their Relation to
Psychological Well-being: Development of the Humor Styles Questionnaire. Journal of
Research in Personality 37.1 (2003): 48-75. Web. 12 Feb. 2016.
This article looks at different types of humor to see which are most common among men
and women. The result was that there is no significant difference in the use of most of the
types of humor, but with Aggressive and Self-defeating humor, use by men skyrocketed.
This agrees with my other articles that there are inherent differences in humor depending
on gender; whether thats nature or nurture is yet to be said. In my research, this
information is useful in seeing that many successful female comedians are the ones who
are very aggressive or self-defeating. This could be indicative of this idea that women

who dont joke the exact same way as men are not accepted as easily into the comedy
industry.

Crawford, Mary. Gender and Humor in Social Context. Journal of Pragmatics 35.9
(2003): 1413-1430. Web. 14 Feb. 2016.
This article is similar to a lot of the non-scholarly articles in that it discusses gender and
humor in a social context, rather than a biological one. It discusses the use of humor as a
tool, and what the implications of sexism are in this use. It discusses the malleability of
humor, and the fact that it could be used by women to fight against gender norms and
social constructs. This article is very valuable because it is writing about exactly what I
am writing about. The only issue is that it is a theoretical piece. Unlike the other scholarly
articles, it does not detail a study or experiment; rather, it is a critical review of research
on gender and humor (3).

Feingold, Alan. Gender Differences in Mate Selection Preferences: A Test of the

Parental. Psychological Bulletin 112.1 (1992): 125-139. Web. 14 Feb. 2016.
Unlike most of my other articles, this articles primary focus is not humor, but it still
provides a quality perspective that is useful to my research. It discusses the differences in
how men and women choose a partner. This article indicates that humor was not a factor
that determined choosing of a mate, because it was not related to raising children or
surviving. Intelligence though was a determining factor for women looking for men, and
as was stated in several other sources listed here, humor is often a way of determining

another persons intelligence. Therefore, women could be more attracted to men because
of their sense of humor simply because it indicates intelligence, which is a survival trait.

Kotthoff, Helga. Gender and Humor: The State of the Art. Journal of Pragmatics 38.1
(2006): 4-25. Web. 14 Feb. 2016.
This article, similar to the article written by Mary Crawford, discusses gender and humor
from a societal standpoint, and not looking at one experiment in particular. Kotthoff
discusses the gender differences in humor, and the presence of sexism in use of humor.
Unlike my essay, but like most other articles listed, she is discussing humor in everyday
life rather than in the entertainment industry. This is useful in my research because it
details how femininity or masculinity can be used in humor, and the potentials of feminist
humor, which is exactly what I want to encourage in my essay.

Nevo, Ofra, et al. Singaporean Humor: A Cross-Cultural, Cross-Gender Comparison.

The Journal of General Psychology 128.2 (2001): n pag. 14 Feb. 2016.
This article discusses a study done in Singapore. A questionnaire was given to
undergraduate students of Chinese origin at a university. There did not seem to be many
gender differences, unlike several of my other articles, but when asked to name a person
with an outstanding sense of humor, overwhelmingly the answers were men, regardless
of the gender of the participant. This helps my research in showing even this miniscule
amount of bias toward the idea that men are funnier than women.

McGraw, Peter and Joel Warner. Gender and Humor: Was Christopher Hitchens Right
When He Said Women Arent Funny? Huffington Post, 3 Jan. 2012. Web. 14 Feb. 2016.
This article discusses the validity of a mans claim that women, as a whole, are not funny.
It discusses the invalidity of previous studies done to determine this, and overall
disagrees with Hitchens claim. This is useful in my research in pointing out the blatant
sexism in our society dealing with women and humor. It is different from the scholarly
articles I have, because it names several studies, but doesnt focus on just one.

Brandt, Michelle L. Gender Differencs are a Laughing Matter, Study Reveals. Stanford
News. 9 Nov. 2005. Web. 14 Feb. 2016.
This article is similar to many of the scholarly articles I have cited as sources in that it
details an experiment looking at the brains of men and women as they observe humor.
The study found that the pleasure centers in womens brains are much more susceptible to
humor than mens. Women enjoy experiencing humor more than men do. This is helpful
in my research because it helps me to see that women want to be with someone who
makes them laugh, while men want to be with someone who them can make laugh. This
contributes to an overall evolutionary incentive for men to be funny from a young age.
Men are encouraged more to go into comedy, which contributes to the insane discrepancy
between male and female comedians, which contributes to the general population
believing men are as a whole funnier than women.

Greengross, Gil. Do Men and Women Process Humor Differently? Psychology Today.
5 Feb. 2012. Web. 14 Feb. 2016.

This article discusses and analyzes the study done by N. Kohn, et al. It provides a
comprehensive analysis of the study, laid out in colloquial terms for a less scholarly
audience. In differentiating opinion from fact, this article serves as little more than
something to look at to gauge ones opinion on the article, in order to understand societal
view of these studies Ive been looking at. It makes large generalizations such as women
tend to dislike sexual and aggressive humor with no grounds or citation or reference to a
study.

Shifman, Limor and Dafna Lemish. Between Feminism and Fun(ny)mism: Analyzing
Gender in Popular Internet Humor. Information, Communication and Society, 13.6
(2012): 870-891. Web. 15 Feb. 2016.
This article discusses the presence of sexism in humor on the Internet. It found that men
and women were mocked relatively equally, but that gender norms are perpetuated
intensely. This article is unlike my other sources, because rather than discussing
difference in humor among men and women, it discusses the presence of sexism in humor
online. This is useful for me in seeing how women are portrayed in humor, and therefore,
how they may be taken seriously, or not taken seriously in life and in comedy.

Whats missing in my research: I would like to discuss more in depth the presence of
sexist imagery in comedy throughout time, which would discourage women from
pursuing comedy, and I only have two sources detailing that at this time, so Id love to go
more in depth and find some more articles about that.