Mars, Venus & Laughter

The London Institute of Neurology did a study, using MRIs to photograph men's and women's brains as they processed a joke. The idea was to study if men & women find different things humorous and if so, what the primary differences were. They used slapstick humor to edgy comics and everything in-between.

For real.

Doctors did this.

Anyway, the findings were thus: The analytical region of women's brains was more active than men's. In short, women think a little more about what's funny and why it's funny and men are more reactive.

In the same article (hey, man, don't knock Reader's Digest..."Ways to Enrich Your Word Power" & "All in a Day's Work" and "Quotable Quotes" alone make that magazine worthwhile. Anything else you get is gravy) they listed the top 5 funny films for men and women. Here's the list:

Men: Blazing Saddles, Caddyshack, Office Space, Trading Places & Meet the Parents.
Women: When Harry Met Sally, 9 to 5, Annie Hall, Clueless, Tootsie.

Now, RD does have some generational bias, so I thought I'd roll with my own top-5 all-time funny movies:

Dumb & Dumber, Bottle Rocket, Caddyshack, Beavis & Butt-head Do America, (This Is) Spinal Tap.

I couldn't begin to tell you my wife's list of top-5, but she's a romantic comedy kind of girl...stuff like Sweet Home Alabama and all that, but I know she liked Meet the Parents, too.

So, in our home, this findings are pretty true to form. I'd be interested to hear from patrons today on the differences in funny movies from your households (or if you're single, the differences in yours & the last person you kinda dated). Yes, you'll have to make a list, too.

Have at it, kids!