On Tue, 20 Sep 2005, John Adams wrote:
>> Comedy is really male.
>
> Extremely, commonly, or intrinsicly?
I don't entirely buy his theory of humor (in part because it's been obsoleted by changes in society that his theories contributed to bring about; in part because it's simply too one-dimensional) but Freud thought jokes were entirely a matter of male sexual aggression -- expressing the taboo in a distorted form to get it through the social censor. On this theory, people who are driven to tell lots of jokes have lots of aggression they want to take out on people. Sexual jokes are a way of expressing aggression towards women. And anger turned inward is depression, which frequently haunts them when they aren't succeeding in their outlet.
Again, I'm not endorsing this mechanical (or hydraulic?) theory. I'm just saying this idea that humor is primarily male has been respectable for at least a century. And one could plausibly replace "entirely due" to "in part due," tinker with it a bit, and perhaps end up with an idea worth considering.
Michael