Humour part 2 – men

BBC Learning EnglishWeekenderHumour part 2 – men & womenJackie:  Hello, I'm Jackie Dalton, this is BBCLearning English dot com. Last week, welooked at humour and why it's important. It can be used tohelp you cope with an embarrassing situation, or to build agood relationship with others…and sometimes to makeyourself the centre of attention!
　　Today we're going to hear more from Jennifer Coates ofRoehampton University. She's done a lot of research intothe differences in the ways men and women talk to eachother and use humour. She thinks men and women use humourin very different ways. First, some helpful words:
　　a joke – something you say to make people laugh, often afunny story or short commentbanter - which means conversation where people say amusingthings solo - which means on your own.
　　So what does Jennifer think are some of the differences inthe way men and women use humour? Listen to find out.
　　JenniferWomen much more share stories of things going wrong orhaving problems, or an embarrassing situation, whereas menmuch more prefer either jokey banter 1 or telling a joke in amuch more solo way.
　　Jackie:  Did you get the answer? Women share storiesabout things going wrong or embarrassing situations. Butmen prefer telling jokes and banter in a more individual orsolo way – they don't share so much. As we listen toJennifer again, some phrases that we'll come across:
　　Weekender  ? BBC Learning EnglishPage 1 of 3bbclearningenglish.comTo collaborate 2 – to work togetherA joint 3 creation – something people do together, as a teamTo take the floor – to talk to a group of people andbecome the focus of attentionTo hog 4 – to keep something all to yourself and not shareit with othersListen out for these expressions in use.
　　JenniferI think altogether in talk men are more likely to besoloists and women are more likely to be members of agroup. Women like collaborating 5 in talk and producingsomething that can be seen as a joint creation whereas men,they like to take strong positions and this is the same inhumour - they'll take the floor and they'll tell a funnystory or they'll tell a joke and then they're very happy topass it over to someone else so it's not as if they'll hogthe floor, but it's much more: this is what 'I've' got tosay, not what 'we've' got to say.
　　Jackie:  So again, Jennifer tells us her researchshows women tend to collaborate in humour to make a jointcreation, whereas men like to take the floor and performalone. Well, I think now it's time to hear from a man. So Iasked one what hethought. This is Kaz - what does he think?
　　KazSolidarity amongst women, yeah that might be true, thatmight just be true of female psychology 7 in general and theway they communicate.
　　Jackie:  Kaz agrees it could be true that women usehumour more for solidarity 6.
　　Solidarity – building a strong relationship with thosearound you – collaborating. He says it's not just abouthumour but the way females communicate with each other ingeneral. What are some of the other differences in men andwomen'shumour, according to him?
　　KazThings that I find funny, I find funny over and over andover again. Things that my wife finds funny, she findsfunny once, you might get a smile from her a second time,but after that it starts to irritate her and I think maybethat's a difference.
　　Jackie:  Now what does Yvonne think is the maindifference between men and women's humour?
　　YvonneWomen are kind of fussy 8 and they go into big details,whereas men just see the general thing. So a big burp mightbe funny to a man and that's all it needs to be – itdoesn't need to be 'Well why did it sound like that?' Or:
　　'Was that because you've been drinking a fizzy drink?' Theydon't care it was just a burp and it came out loud and itwas at the wrong time and that's funny and I do like men'ssense of humour. It's less complicatedJackie:  Yvonne thinks men's humour is more simple.
　　Less complicated. But she also thinks women often usehumour for selfish reasons. She'll use the word 'devious 9'
　　– which means to use dishonest tricks you get what youwant.
　　YvonneI think that women get quite devious about how they usetheir sense of humour sometimes. So they try to saysomething serious to a boyfriend or a husband for exampleand I've noticed that what they do is, they're actuallysaying something quite serious but try to cover it up witha joke and I find that quite devious.
　　Jackie:  Well, there you go – some very differentopinions on how we use humour.
　　Perhaps next time you're with a group of people, pay closeattention to how they interact and form your own opinionabout men, women and humour. To end, a reminder 10 of some ofthe language that came up:
　　joke  banter  solo  to collaboratea joint creation  to take the floor  to hog  tobe devious.