Men Like Women Who Deploy "Guy Humor"

Everybody wants to date someone with a good sense of humor. But as it turns out, not all humor is equally attractive — and some say men prefer ladies who joke like dudes.

BusinessInsider reports on a study by eHarmony, which found that male users love sarcastic ladies — they message women with this humor style 14% more often than others. Apparently guys also like juvenile humor in women — so girls, poop jokes will get you laid. Less popular were “ironic” humor and political jokes, which netted women 4% and 12% fewer messages, respectively. Women, on the other hand, tended to like men with a dry sense of humor (+16%), though sarcasm was also popular (+7%). Practical joking did neither men nor women any favors, and “dark” humor was similarly disadvantageous. According to BusinessInsider, the data show that “men prefer women who use ‘guy humor’ –- sarcastic, juvenile, geeky or raw — whereas women prefer guys who use ‘gal humor’ –- sarcastic, dry or ironic.”

The study has a lot of limitations. First of all, it was based on users’ self-reported descriptions of their humor style, which may not be how others perceive them. Also, the categories seem to bleed into each other — what’s the difference, for instance, between sarcastic and ironic? Then there’s the question of how accurately studies about online dating behavior reflect off-line preferences. Does messaging someone a lot mean you’ll actually like them when you meet up? Finally, is it really accurate to separate humor into “guy” and “gal” varieties? In this case, the separation seems pretty inexact — sarcasm, for instance, appears in both categories.

The eHarmony survey does seem to reveal some differences in the kinds of jokes straight men and women prefer — the suggestion that men don’t like it when women joke about politics is interesting, and potentially disturbing. Do guys think making fun of Glenn Beck is their department? If that’s true, it might tell us something about persistent gender stereotypes in the area of jokes and flirtation. But I’ll need a much more rigorous study before I believe that “guy humor” is the best way to land a dude.