Testosterone for laughs

The real reason men are funnier than women

Men are naturally funnier than women thanks to their testosterone, experts claim.

In news which, no doubt, men everywhere will delight in, a doctor at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital claims the male of the species really is funnier than women, but it's thanks to his hormones rather than his sense of humour.

Professor Sam Shuster based his research on the way individuals reacted to his favourite hobby, unicycling.

Apparently, of the 400 people he monitored while cycling along in Newcastle, almost half reacted verbally. But while women tended to make encouraging comments, young men reacted more aggressively, using mocking humour, sarcasm or snide jokes to put him down.

'The idea that unicycling is intrinsically funny does not explain the findings,' says the Professor.

Instead, he believes his hobby proves that male hormones, such as testosterone, prompt men into an aggressive stance, which they mask as humour.