Why So Serious?

Today at work I found myself talking to a girl I had just met. We were having a nice short conversation, when I cracked a joke that was just down right awful. After the words slipped through my mouth I immediately wanted to retract what I had said. I wanted to sulk off and wallow in my shame, but instead the craziest thing happened, she laughed! It caught me by surprise, but I kept the conversation going. Remembering what we had talked about in class about the social norm of guys being the funny ones, and girls being the ones that are supposed to laugh, I decided to put this to the test. I started letting out one joke after another. Some were good, most were bad, but each time she responded with the same volume of laughter. Even after ending my test she continued to laugh at things I said that weren't even jokes.

My little test seemed to confirm this normalized idea that men are supposed to be the funny ones. I'm not saying that we should be confined to this in any way. I would have loved it if she had turned the jokes on me and given me something to laugh at.  Women have been taught that if a guy makes a joke and you don't want to be rude then you laugh. Men have been taught that they need to make a girl laugh in order to get her to like you. It seems like this social norm has in a way taken away from the necessary content for being funny. Guy's won't tell the same jokes to girls that they tell their friends. Their friends tend to be more judgmental and will call you out if the joke is terrible. Same goes with girls. They tell jokes to each other all the time, and yet they are usually seen on the receiving end when talking to guys. All in all I would love to see more girls stepping out of the box and allow us both to share a good laugh.