Owning Laughter

Wired Magazine wonders who is funnier: Conservatives or Liberals; Democrats or Republicans.

All I know, because it came up in the threads,  is that at the Al Smith dinner, Mitt Romney killed. Dennis Miller did a great job dissecting why Romney was funnier than Obama, mostly because of his comedic timing.

And really, anyone who is into humor would conclude Romney won that one.

Whereas, during the political debates, Obama may have come up with zingers but they were lightweight in stature. The bayonnets quip may have made hard-leftists howl, but the problem is that bayonnets are still manufactured and used in training.

Ironic, given all the drivel hurled against Romney. There's a tired misconception that conservatives aren't funny. Bush was hilarious in his comebacks. Dare I say, he was wittier than Obama. Or as they say in Quebec, "plus vite sur ses patins." Quicker on his skates.

Not surprising. Obama is not that good "unplugged."

More interestingly, Romney wrote his own jokes, where as Obama had a conservative writer write his.

Ooo, the irony!

It concludes:

"...So neither late-night comedy nor the 2008 political debates suggest Democrats really have a leg up on Republicans in the funny business. But what about how average Democrats and Republicans go about their daily lives: In general, do liberals have a better sense of humor than conservatives?

To find out, Duke University psychology and behavioral economics professor Dan Ariely and Mount Holyoke College student Elisabeth Malin in 2008 told 22 jokes on various topics to 300 people, half liberal and half conservative, and asked them to rate their funniness. Not too surprisingly, the conservatives were more apt to enjoy jokes that reinforced traditional racial and gender stereotypes — including a zinger about a guy choosing a game of golf over his wife’s funeral.

But here’s the thing: Conservatives also gave higher ratings to absurdist quips from Jack Handey’s Deep Thoughts, the sort of stuff usually associated with cerebral East Coast liberals. In fact, right-wingers found all kinds of jokes funnier than their liberal counterparts.

Maybe, then, the claim that Republicans aren’t funny is as empty as that chair Clint Eastwood yelled at during the 2012 Republican National Convention. And maybe conservatives really are ready for their own version of Stephen Colbert or Lenny Bruce. All they have to do now is find the right funnyman (or woman) for the job."