Early on in his career, the England player Peter Crouch was asked what he’d have been if he wasn’t a footballer. “A virgin,” he replied. Crouch is evidently a very funny man, but he may have been right. According to a study by a team at the University of Queensland, women are not, in fact, attracted to funny men.
This is startling news. What was it, for example, that first attracted Britt Ekland to Peter Sellers? His cooking? Some may have thought the link between humour and attraction to be so well established that it was beyond doubt. An infinity of romantic comedies have taught men with few other positive traits that cracking jokes was a failsafe route to a woman’s heart. “Being funny is not anyone’s first choice,” noted Woody Allen. Yet most people still thought it made a big difference if you looked like, for example, Woody Allen.
There is, however, nuance here. Researchers studied 350 heterosexual volunteers, all of whom participated in hundreds of three minute speed-dates. Three minutes is not very long. By the time the date was over, a shaggy dog story of the sort told by the great Ronnie Corbett (who was married, incidentally, to the dancer and actress Anne Hart) would barely have begun.“We speculate,” mused the lead scientist, “that not all laughter is in response to something funny. Instead some laughter may be the result of awkwardness.” As in, less humour, and more humouring.
In the past, scientists have suggested an evolutionary benefit in women seeking an amusing mate. This links humour to intelligence, which may come as a surprise to anyone who has seen Mrs Brown’s Boys. Funny single men, even so, may despair at today’s news. Those who are funny and already attached, while perhaps bemused, should see it as a positive. You clearly have something else going for you. Whatever could it be?
