She Who Laughs Last

Posted at 12:03 PM on Wednesday, February 03, 2010

If you’re the girl who stands blank faced after someone’s told a joke whilst everyone around you is in fits of laughter, don’t fret. Instead of whining: 'but I don’t get iiittttt’ you should be smiling smugly to yourself because you’ll have the last laugh in the end. Scientists at the University of California have discovered that although women take longer to get a joke they enjoy it more when they get there.

Taking ten men and ten women the scientists showed each group dozens of black and white cartoons and were asked to push a button at the moment when they found the joke funny. At the same time their brains were scanned.

The results showed that women take longer to process jokes because we use our brain’s more (no surprises there!) and we have less expectation for a joke to be funny. It’s no laughing matter for men though, as they expect a joke to be funny from the start and ultimately end up disappointed when it’s not. Aww.