Gender and humour: beyond a joke

Abstract

This thesis investigates the interaction between gender and humour in spontaneous New Zealand English. Tapes were collected of men and women in single sex and mixed groups and instances of humour were identified and transcribed. The taping situation proved more comfortable for the female groups and the mixed groups than for the male groups. Male groups tend to be more task-based, and so often treated the taping as a task to be completed. The tape-recorder was the primary reason for their conversation, whereas for other groups, the tape-recorder was incidental to the interaction. A taxonomy of types of humour was constructed. Log-linear modelling showed that both gender and group composition affect the type of humour used. The most statistically significant results were that women are more likely to use observational humour than men, insults and roleplay are more likely to occur in single sex conversations and humour involving quotes or vulgarity seldom occurs in mixed interaction and is more often used by men than by women. Other trends indicated that anecdotes and fantasy humour are more likely to occur in mixed interaction than single sex interaction, and men tend to use more roleplay and wordplay than women whereas women are more likely to use jocular insults. Most of the humour in the corpus was fresh humour, although men were shown more likely to use external source humour than women. This supports prior research which indicates men's humour is likely to be less context bound than women's and that they are more likely than women to discuss things they have seen or read. An analysis of the functions of humour showed women more likely to use humour to create solidarity than men. In particular, women often used humour to share personal information about themselves. When using humour for solidarity based purposes men were more likely to capitalise on shared experiences or highlight similarities. Power based strategies such as controlling or fostering conflict occurred extremely rarely. Men were more likely than women to use humour only for the general function of increasing status and solidarity and performing positive work on their personal identity. Men were more likely to use humour to cope with a situational problem, whereas females more often used general coping strategies which enabled them to cope with problems not specific to the immediate situation. The results showed that, contrary to literature indicating teasing is a predominantly male activity, men and women tease both in a powerful manner and to create or maintain solidarity, although this strategy is largely restricted to single sex groups. The humour used by the females was more likely to be about a topic involving people than men's humour. The men joked more about work, computers, television shows, movies or books, and alcohol. Speakers were much more likely to use humour focussed on a same-sex group member when in single sex groups than in mixed groups. In mixed interaction speakers maintained gender boundaries by focussing humour on group members of the opposite sex. In mixed groups men contributed more humour than women. This supports claims that, as joking has been regarded a masculine activity, women are reserved with their humour when in mixed groups. Analysis of how speakers present themselves through humour can give insight into the value systems of the group. The humour in this corpus indicates that the ability to laugh at oneself and to be open and honest are valued more by female groups than male groups, and wit and "coolness" are traits valued more by males. The final aspect of humour investigated is that of humour support. It is shown that the issue of humour support is much more complicated than many researchers claim. There are numerous support strategies available to any audience, some of which provide stronger support than others. The most appropriate strategies will vary with context. Some types of humour do not require any support at all, and there are many reasons why an audience may choose not to support an attempt at humour. The results presented in this thesis are intended as ground work on which to base further qualitative investigation of how gendered identities are constructed via humour.