Blog #5: Favorite Comedians

Blog #5: Humor

My favorite comedian right now is Amy Schumer. I like her use of aggressive and self-defeating humor, and although these two types of humor are sometimes found to be negative, I enjoy stand-up that pulls from these humor categories. Amy is an extremely popular comedian right now, especially after her movie Trainwreck, but even though she is really popular she does get some heat from people who do not like her rather vulgar jokes that are shown through aggressive and self-defeating humor. As much as I want to argue with those who don’t like her, I decided to take a step back, and remove my bias of liking her as a comedian, and see what does go wrong with aggressive and self-defeating humor (when it’s not making you cry from laughing). In one article I read, it brings up the point about when a significant other uses these two more negative types of humor, it can put a strain on their relationship and affect the other person. When I thought about this personally, I did realize that this type of humor can really come off offensive and cruel, and even though I think it is funny when Amy Schumer uses it, if my boyfriend chose to, I would be taken aback. They go on to say that their study on the negative types of humor, “…indicated that individuals who reported using more aggressive humor were more likely to have partners who were embarrassed by them.” (Masui, 2016) I would never want to embarrass my significant other through my humor, because I think humor is a trait that a lot of people fall in love with about a person, it would be a shame for that to be a downfall in a relationship. Not only has my research shown me that these two types of negative humor causes a rift in romantic relationships, it can also cause issues personally, “a detrimental effect on well-being when a maladaptive style (self-defeating, aggressive) was higher”. (Maiolino, 2016) Knowing that these types of humor can affect my well-being is a big concern. I don’t think I will stop enjoying Amy Schumer’s work, but knowing these studies and being more aware how humor effects your life on a wider scale imagined will be helpful.

I also decided that the Humor blog would be a good opportunity to interview a leader. I chose to interview one of the officers in my women’s organization. I chose Lynsey because I find her quite humorous but she is also a powerful leader for the group of women in my organization. We discussed what category of humor she relates with and if she found that type of humor was positive in her leadership role. I felt her answer nicely represented the flip side of what I have discussed earlier in my blog, the positive side of humor and how it can help us in our daily lives. Her answer was as followed:

“I think that I would identify with the self-enhancing category of humor. I like to use the hardships that us college students go through every day to lighten the mood at serious meetings. We are all busy, struggling with schedules and classes, and juggling school and social lives, I find it something that we all have in common that we can turn into a joke that we can laugh about. I think it really helps with bonding, when girls in our organization can connect over something stressful in their life through joking about it. I like to use this style as a leader, and be a help to the girls to make them laugh and de-stress.”

Work Cited:

Maiolino, Nadia, and Nick Kuiper. “Examining the Impact of A Brief Humor Exercise on Psychological Well-Being.” Translational Issues in Psychological Science 2.1 (2016): 4-13. PsychINFO. Web. 10 Apr. 2016

Masui, Keita, and Mitsuhiro Ura. “Aggressive Humor Style and Psychopathy: Moderating Effects of Childhood Socioeconomic Status.” Translational Issues in Psychological Science 2.1 (2016): 4-13. PsychINFO. Web. 10 Apr. 2016