Is Stand Up Sexist?

What compels us to want to make people laugh?

It’s one thing saying something funny in the moment, but to deliberately write, rehearse and deliver material with the sole intention of making everyone listening roll in the aisles laughing conjures up a sticky web of fear and insecurities.  At best, failure means stony silence, at worst … no it doesn’t bear thinking about. So who are the most likely people to succeed at standup?

These are some of the questions I asked myself when I took a major leap of faith and volunteered to do a 5 minute stand up routine in front of an audience of professional speakers.

The comedic line up consists of 21 people, 15 men and 6 women.  Now there’s a clue.  Is it gender specific?  We don’t have to think very hard to note that stand up comedy is male dominated.  So why?

Humour is part of the mating game.  Making people laugh boosts attractiveness especially when we’re flirting.  Telling a joke releases awkwardness.  Laughing together brings together by enabling recognition of common beliefs, backgrounds and experiences.  It’s no surprise therefore, that research shows laughter and humour to be biologically part of our evolution and is paramount to our mental, emotional and social lives.

Wow!  Who would have thought comedians could be so valuable, they should be on prescription!  The subject of humour is vast, so I’m not going down the health route.  Let’s get back to gender.

How about trying this?  Next time you’re in a bar look around and see how many men are trying to make women laugh.  Now ask a group of women you know to list the attributes they look for in a man.  I will wager that one of these attributes is that they want a man who can make her laugh. 

Of course this is controversial, but if you think about it in evolutionary terms, women select a mate, she chooses a selection criteria such as physical strength, resourcefulness and humour.  Whilst it’s the men who compete for a woman, so he will need to be out there strutting his stuff in order to tickle her funny bone.

Even neuroscientific research has found that regions that are analytical, emotional and part of the reward circuit are more activated in a female brain when exposed to humour than the male brain.

Of course, a short blog will not allow for a discussion into cultural and personality differences, this is for another day.

For the time being, evolutionary and biological explanations of gender differences and humour will suffice.

So the comedy night will be heavily male, but as always size doesn’t matter.  So good luck ladies, let’s show ‘em what we’re made of!