Understanding humour, seriously!

Gender still influences humour, sometimes overtly, sometimes covertly and often, stereotypes in joke content can bring gender issues to the fore in an affirmative or subversive way, writes Tanisha Saxena

Tanuj Solanki

Dolly Limbu

Q: Is Google male or female?

A: Female, because it doesn’t let you finish a sentence before making a suggestion, reads a joke on a website — from the early comedy by Catholic scholars to today’s popular internet meme culture — Humour has traversed a long way. But seldom do we discuss how gender influences humour.

Largely seen as a situated discursive practice, it is important to discuss the marginalisation of women’s humour in everyday life, in scientific models, in theories of humour and in the way women are portrayed in comedy.

According to scholars who have delved into the nature of humour, it is not regarded as a laughing matter. Traditionally, too many scholars have regarded it as a mere frivolous pursuit — or at best needless one. Humour is considered to be a major part of a man’s “sexual armoury”.

It is a symbol of manhood and there are chances that a man can get a woman into bed as long as he makes her laugh. It is a rather impressive trait if someone can crack a good joke in public or while making big business deals!

Male locker room humour

Tanuj Solanki, founding editor of The Bombay Literary Magazine, shares, “The humour we encounter in our daily lives — in conversations at home, in WhatsApp groups, in collaborative situations, like a workplace — do have a flavour of gender. I recall being part of a WhatsApp group of people from work. The group was informal and got active after work hours. One day, a question by me as to why there were no women in the group elicited interesting responses, including the most prominent one — that we won’t be able to crack the kind of jokes we do if there were women in the group. So, yes, protecting a certain kind of male locker room humour is almost an issue of freedom among some men. It follows that the jokes in this genre can range from the typical married life jokes — where the wife’s supposedly dictatorial presence is usually the butt of the joke — to things that are quite clearly linked with what may be called rape culture.”

Getting stereotypical

It is important to explore the dimensions of joking as especially sensitive to gender: status, aggressiveness, social alignment, and sexuality.

According to a research journal, there are various examples which clearly indicate the historical changes in the gender order of humour. Sometimes overtly, sometimes covertly, gender does influence humour.

In specific humorous activities, a particular type of femininity and/or masculinity can be stylised.

Stereotypes in joke content can bring gender issues to the fore in an affirmative or subversive way.

Tired of being the punchline

Dr Vibhuti Patel, former professor of Advanced Centre for Women’s Studies, Mumbai, shares her experience of reading a book, Jokes to Offend Men that she read a few months back.

Vibhuti goes on to state that the book is a modern feminist take on the classic joke book to amuse and empower readers who are tired of being the punchline.”

If we go by the description of the book then it is written by four comedy writers who aim to transform classic joke setups into sharp commentary about the everyday and structural sexism that pervades all facets of life. Jokes to Offend Men arms readers with humorous quips to shut down workplace underminers, condescending uncles, and dismissive doctors, or to share with their exhausted friends at the end of a long day. A cutting, cathartic spin on the old-fashioned joke book, Jokes to Offend Men is a refreshing reclamation of a tired form for anyone who’s ever been told to “lighten up, it’s just a joke.”

“Whenever gendered or stereotypical jokes are cracked, one is willingly participating in sustaining systems that institutionalise gender divide and conformity. Like Freud has suggested that jokes are no laughing matter. Jokes are instrumental in systemically fostering oppression, by reducing it to humour sans signification,” believes Dolly Limbu, Assistant Professor, D M College of Arts, Manipur.

But comedy is a huge genre and it totally depends on the individual intent. When used as a powerful element, it has the potential to speak volumes about society.