HUMOUR.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 22 January 1927, Page 17

HUMOUR.

THE SENSE IN MEN AND WOMEN. Mr St. John Irvine writes: It is an old reproach made by men. against women that they have no sense of humour, and the stock test of their failing is their attitude towards Falstaff. Someone has said that no woman can see the fun of Falstaff. This may or may not be true (it is obviously impassible to settle tlie point with any accuracy), but assuming that it is true, it proves no more than this—that women do not appreciate that particular sort of humour; it does not prove that they have no sense of humour at all. . There probably is a deep difference between a woman’s sense of humour and a man’s. That would seem to be in the nature of things. Even when they laugh together, they may be laughing for very dissimilar reasons. But there must also be a sense of humour which men and women share in common, when they laugh at the same thing for the same reason. There can he no decision about this matter, but we may amuse ourselves by considering why it is that women, general]}’ speaking, do not laugh at certain tilings which make men laugh. Lately in tbe theatre- I have entertained myself by listening to the laughter of the audience and attempting to divide it. so to speak, into sex sections. I would not for a moment- pretend that my observations have any scientific accuracy, but I think I have suffi-cient-1 v well observed the laughters to he able to offer some opinions on this old subject. There are many things which make men laugh almost uproariously. arid yet leave . women mirthless; there are some things at wheih they both laugh, either for the same reason or for different reasons; and there are other tilings which make a woman laugh loudly, but leave men looking glum or unmoved. When I am told that the Falstaff test proves that women lack a sense of humour, I am unimpressed, for a good deal of the Falstaff .humour is concerned with drunkenness, and I imagine that women seldom see the funny side of drunkenness. A drunken man may he an amusing companion to other men. especially if they are also drunk, but he probably is a source of horror, in greater or less degree, to women. The number of men t-o-day who find drunkenness singularlv unfunny is increasing, and at the. risk of being told that I lack a sense of humour myself. I will acknowledge that I find a drunken man a disgusting sight and that I have no desire whatever to be in his company.

The humour of this form of human outrage seems to me more imaginary than real, and I have noticed that m-e tended drunkenness excites more laughter than real drunkenness. People will laugh in the theatre at- an a "tor giving an imitation of a drunken man. but they laugh less ’•°ndily when they see a. drunken man in the street, or are unfortunate enough to come into the company of one.

It is interesting to consider how tlie great influx of women into the theatre in recent- years has changed its character. The old-fashioned music hall, which was chiefly a man’s entertainment, has nearly disappeared. I doubt, indeed, if the great comedians v ho flourished at the beginning of the century—men like Dan Leno—would be popular with the contemporary and chiefly feminine audiences. They depended entirely upon their personalities for their success; their jokes were limited in range, and were mainly concerned with drink, interloping

lodgers, and cantakerous mothers-in-law, subjects which are not, and have never been, funny to women. The old-fashioned msuie hall was, indeed, a prolonged masculine jeer at women, and when women took possession of the theatre it was inevitable that the comedian who lived on that jeer should lose his occupation. T used to sit- in music halls and marvel at the fact thta a lion comiqne could reduce the men in his audience to a condition of helpless laughter, and yet leave th© women rarely ' smiling, and uerhaps even yawning in his face. The substitution of spectacular pieces and revues, in which there is no per"sonality, but instead a lavish display of dress' and pretty colours, and dancing and spectacle, seems to support the belief that women are not interested in humour. The commonest complaint made hy men against these is that there is no fun i n them. But I suspect that women hud mu~h of masculine humour merely boring nd silly. They have less patience with nonsensical behaviour than men have, and perhaps they are not- so easy-going and tolerant in their atttiude towards odditv. It is ’■n for a woman to write a humorous hook. She generally takes a sterner view of the world.