Male vs. Female Humor

What do you find funny?  What makes you laugh out loud?  What is it that makes something funny?  And do men and women respond to different types of humor?

It matters in life, but it also matters in marketing.  Humor is a very powerful tool in marketing.  When done right - it is engaging and influential.  When done wrong - it can not only fail to engage, it maybe even have the opposite effect, causing your perspective customer to disengage with your message.

Humor in advertising appeals to both sexes, but it is especially powerful with women.   

Marketers looking to target women might try putting more humor in their ads.

So say preliminary findings in a yearlong study prepared by Oxygen Media and Grey Global Group's MediaCom. The study focuses on women and humor. Initial findings were released today.

The article talks about the different types of humor women respond to. 

Want a first hand look at what women find funny?   Go check out Kiki Melendez and her Hot Tamales Live show November 30th - December 2nd in NYC.

I saw the show earlier this year and it is snort out your drink funny.    But what was most interesting is - I noticed that some of the humor that had the women howling seemed to miss the mark with some of the men.   Why was that?   Here are some ideas...

There are many thoughts on what kind of humor men and women find funny.   Here are some thoughts on what women find funny from the blog Writing For Success:

A word here about the difference in male and female humour. Male humour is a little more aggressive, often aimed at people more vulnerable than themselves, or towards targets they'd like to see 'fail'. Slapstick can fall into this category, something both men and women do enjoy. But, as popular author Jennifer Crusie states on her website:

"Most women don't like aggressive humour that attacks people who are minding their own business or who are weaker or vulnerable. Most women DO like humour that attacks people who have attacked women, so use defensive humour that attacks up…

"Women also like humour that points out the absurdities in the general prevailing patriarchal view of reality.

"Because most women are interested in and rely on relationships, we like community-based humour best… when two or more people form a tight bond and share opinions and senses of humour so that events that are not particularly funny to people outside the community become hysterical to those inside the community (which includes the reader…)"

Jennifer Archer adds: "I think women are most amused by situations they relate to… Often, I turn to my personal experiences with the women in my life when pondering ideas for adding humour to my writing. What do we talk about when we get together? What topics, situations and attitudes make us laugh?"

Want to make your marketing to women efforts more effective?  Use humor - but be careful - just because it was a hit in the brainstorming room doesn't mean she will find it funny.  Get out there and see what women are laughing at.   If you're in the NYC area, check out the female comics of Hot Tamales Live.   

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