The Gender Playbook of Stand-Up Comedy

When it comes to humor, women are typically criticized for being less funny or for trying too hard to be funny. There is a sense of discrimination and inequality when it comes to comedy and gender. Asking the questions, how do sex differences have an effect on comedic styles during stand-up comedy? And, to what extent do female comedians adopt male mannerisms and verbal expressions in their performances? We believed that in order for women to be taken seriously in comedy they possibly had to take up certain character roles in order to fit into their male-dominated industry. Believing that female comedians mimic male comedians, through mimicking in body language, word choice, and pragmatics like pitch in order to be seen as monetarily successful in humor and in the industry, which then phases out as they acquire more experience on stage. Through video observations of 3 different pairs of comedians that include various ethnicities and one sample from male and female groups, we were able to make a discovery about our theory that we did not expect.

Introduction

Aayushi Sanghavi (2019) highlights that gender norms and perceptions of femininity have significantly prevented women from being recognized as “funny.” Historically, patriarchal systems have positioned men superior, including in humor. Research indicates that women’s speech is often perceived as tentative and powerless due to their use of tag questions, uptalk, and diminutive adjectives, while men are more direct and assertive, which applies to humor. This has led to the fallacy that women are not capable of exhibiting aggressive comedy. Most research in this area, conducted by men and focused on men, resulted in a bias associating masculinity with humor. In an industry where ‘funny men’ are celebrated but ‘funny women’ are merely tolerated, the question arises: Do female comedians need to adapt their communication style and stage presence to appear more masculine to be accepted and marketable? Our research focuses on comedians with less than ten years (newbies), ten to fifteen years (mid-career), and fifteen to twenty years (late-career) of professional experience. We will examine a woman and a man in each category, randomizing race, keeping track of filler words, body language, uptalk/pitch, and laughter by observing their performances and analyzing recorded material to gather data for our research.

Methods

To properly analyze comedians’ stand-up videos, we addressed the following questions: How do sex differences affect comedic styles during stand-up? To what extent do female comedians adopt male mannerisms and verbal expressions in their performances? Does this affect audience engagement? Are there differences in body language and vocal delivery between male and female comedians? Our group studied 6 comedians (3 female, 3 male), varying in experience (<10 years, 10-15 years, >20 years) collecting 1 hour of data per person. We watched two Youtube videos to study Ralph Barbosa and Andrea Jin, one Amazon Prime special and one Netflix special to study Mo’Nique, and 6 Netflix specials for Bill Burr, Taylor Tomlinson, and John Mulaney (two/each comedian)1. We analyzed vocal techniques, physical performance, joke content, structure, and timing. Inspired by Weitz’s “Sex differences in nonverbal communication” (1976), we focused on how sex roles affect each comedian’s profession. We identified differences in their rising voice intonation, fillers, body language, and laugh tracks based on their years of experience in the comedy industry. Our research indicates that the longer a comedian is in the industry, the less likely women are to adopt male mannerisms to fit into a male-dominated field, slightly contradicting our initial hypothesis.

Results

Vocal techniques.

• Andrea Jin and Ralph Barbosa’s vocal shift was at a steady pace throughout the entireshow and I did not observe any shift between these two comedian styles.
• Tomlinson often uses vocal fry and change in pitch to portray characters. Mulaney usesaccents and volume shifts to differentiate characters instead.
• Monique uses code-switching and regional dialects from the South and East Coasts of theUnited States, while Bill employs a British accent. Both use uptalk/rising terminal, pitch,

  and volume shifts to portray different characters and emphasize the punchline. Physical presence.

• Jin’s stage presence was frankly odd; she stayed in one spot throughout the whole show, in which she occasionally moved and showed the same presence. I recognize a similar behavior with Barbosa in which he was very stiff throughout the whole show, stayed in one spot, and once in a while he would sway back and forth.
• Tomlinson remains mostly stationary, relying heavily on facial expressions, and only moves when portraying other characters. Mulaney uses his entire body, utilizing the entire stage, even when the joke doesn’t require it.
• Mo’Nique seldom remained stationary; she favored a confident stride while she paced. Additionally, she utilizes gestures with her free hand approximately 95% of the time during her spoken communication. Bill Burr uses many gestures, such as kneeling, lunging, using the mic stand as a prop, and mimicking a blow-up doll, as well as utilizing gestures like strangling and kicking to depict violence. Bill accompanies his speech with hand gestures and is in motion about 80% of the time

Jokes content

• Jin’s jokes were about personal stories, gender topics, and her transition from China. Barbosa particularly displayed his jokes about drugs, smoking, personal stories, and ethnic background. I noticed that both comedians shared a lot in common with their jokes.
• Tomlinson jokes about sex, failed romantic relationships, gender differences, and religious trauma. Mulaney jokes about drug addictions and tells long autobiographical stories. Neither of the two used an excessive amount of filler words.
• Mo’Nique incorporates camaraderie into her jokes about her numerous husbands, weight, being Black in Caucasian spaces, her career, and her experiences as a student in special education. Burr displayed traits from the feminine speech community while discussing male feminism, cultural appropriation, cancel culture, white male privilege, and family dynamics. In two hours, he used 115 filler words, 13 discourse markers, and 82 tag questions. They both use a significant amount of expletives. 

Structure

• Jin’s structure of her jokes was very rushed, she didn’t give the audience a chance to soak in the jokes and moved along very quickly. I did notice that Jin had a lot of extra sentential switches which at the end of every joke she would say “uhhhuh” to let the audience know that she was done. Barbosa on the other hand was slow with his jokes but gave he the audience a chance to soak in the jokes with frequent pauses.

• Tomlinson’s jokes are presented in separate sections with noticeable transitions. Mulaneytreats his performance as one long story with many sub stories.
• Monique and Burr presented jokes in separate sections. Mo’Nique engages with thecrowd, while Burr uses “ahhh” and “alright” as transitions. Timing.

• As I mentioned before Jin rushed her transition between topics in which the structure of her jokes didn’t follow through and there were multiple awkward pauses in between her transitions. Barbosa on the other hand had noticeable transitions but did take a long time to finish a joke.
• Both comedians used more pauses later in their careers. Tomlinson would use “anyway”, “so yeah”, “and uh…” right after delivering the punchline to seem nonchalant or to possibly prepare in case the joke doesn’t “land”. Mulaney took noticeably long, dramatic pauses to let the audience laugh.
• Although Burr’s timing varies with choppiness, short pauses, and speeding through the jokes, Monique, on the other hand, takes fewer pauses and delivers a slowly timed punchline. 

Discussion

The observed patterns have supported our hypothesis only minimally. In early career comedians, Andrea Jin did fit the style of a hypothesis, appearing to have a masculine style. She used arm motions to dissociate body parts, joked about typical gender issues to connect with the female audience. Barbosa, however, maintained a neutral approach, which did not support our gender-based hypothesis. Mid-career comedians Taylor Tomlinson and John Mulaney showed more contrasting styles, Tomlinson being more timid and scripted, while Mulaney was more relaxed and confident. However, surprising findings include Tomlinson’s prevalence in sex-related jokes compared to Mulaney. Our findings possibly suggest that women feel more restricted in their performances, while men have greater confidence to take up more space. However, we soon found contradicting evidence, with Mo’Nique’s performance challenging this idea, since this late-career comedian embraced her feminine sexuality through her attire, confident struts on the stage, and bold delivery of jokes. Contrary to the existing literature on usage of filler words between genders (Laserna, Seih, and Pennebaker), we found that filler words were not used by women, with seasoned comedian Bill Burr using them the most, while others hardly used them. Observing both of the late-career comedians raised questions on whether Mo’Nique felt the need to compensate by her spectacular presentation since she is a double minority as a black woman, and if being a part of a majority (white male) influences the comedic style of a comedian.

Our content study challenges the notion that female comedians must adopt male mannerisms to be seen as competent in the field. While gender norms play a role, factors like parenting styles, personal choices and branding, past experiences, and social conditioning are also influential. Our hypothesis was partially supported as less experienced female comedians showed more masculine behavior, and this decreased after 10 years in the field. Females in their mid-career and late career often joked about sex and porn, unlike beginner female comedians and male comedians. Notably, Bill Burr who has been in the industry for 30 years, used many filler words, compared to beginner performers who instead used more awkward sounds. Future studies should explore larger samples, longer time frames, and in-person observations to provide deeper insight. We found that female and male comedians viewed certain topics differently with women feeling more comfortable joking about sex. While our hypothesis was minimally supported, comedy styles seem to be shaped by socio-cultural background, personal styles, and past experiences, rather than by gender mimicry. Further research is needed to assess how gender dynamics evolve in a comedian’s career trajectory.

References

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Binder, M. (Director). (2019). Bill Burr: Paper Tiger [TV Special]. Netflix. https://www.netflix.com/

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Laserna, C. M., Seih, Y.-T., & Pennebaker, J. W. (2014). Um… Who Like Says You Know: Filler Word Use as a Function of Age, Gender, and Personality. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 33(3), 331-340.

Mercado, K. (Director). (2022). Taylor Tomlinson: Look at You [TV Special]. Netflix. https://www.netflix.com/

Mizejewski, L. (2014). Pretty/Funny. University of Texas Press.
Raboy, M. (Director). (2020). Taylor Tomlinson: Quarter-Life Crisis [TV Special]. Netflix.

https://www.netflix.com/
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Frazier, L. (Director). (2023). Mo’Nique: My Name Is Mo’Nique [TV Special]. Netflix. https://www.netflix.com/

Sanghavi, A. (2019). The Effects of 21st Century Digital Media On the Changing Perceptions of Women’s Humour and Female Comedians. https://doi.org/10.33422/6th.icrbs.2019.07.430

Small, L. (Director). (2004). Mo’Nique: One Night Stand [TV Special]. Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/

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Timbers, A. (Director). (2023). John Mulaney: Baby J [TV Special]. Netflix. https://www.netflix.com/

Timbers, A. (Director). (2018). John Mulaney: Kid Gorgeous at Radio City [TV Special]. Netflix.https://www.netflix.com/

Kallstig, A. (2021). Laughing in the Face of Danger: Performativity and Resistance in Zimbabwean Stand-up Comedy. Global Society : Journal of Interdisciplinary International Relations, 35(1), 45–60. https://doi.org/10.1080/13600826.2020.1828295

Weitz, S. Sex differences in nonverbal communication. Sex Roles 2, 175–184 (1976). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00287250

Appendix A.

“Andrea Jin: Comedy Central Stand up” (2024).” Youtube. “Bill Burr: Live at Red Rocks” (2022). Netflix Special. “Bill Burr: Paper Tiger” (2019). Netflix Special.
“John Mulaney: Baby J” (2023). Netflix Special.

“John Mulaney: Kid Gorgeous at Radio City” (2018). Netflix Special. “Mo’Nique: My Name is Mo’Nique” (2023). Netflix Special. “Mo’Nique: One Night Stand” (2004). Amazon Special.
“Ralph Barbosa: Comedy Central Stand up” (2023). Youtube.

“Taylor Tomlinson: Look At You” (2022). Netflix Special. “Taylor Tomlinson: Quarter-Life Crisis” (2020). Netflix Special.