An English dermatologist unicycled around Newcastle to test gender reactions, concluding that testosterone makes men funnier.

ADVERTISEMENT

In a report in the British Medical Journal, Dr. Sam Shuster said that 90 percent of the people who saw him on his unicycle made some sort of comment. Women tended to be gentler, praising his ability or worrying about his safety, while men were more likely to make jokes.

Male jokes also tended to be more aggressive than those made by women, he said. One typical comment was, "Couldn't you afford another wheel?"

"The initial aggressive intent channeled the verbal response into a contrived but more subtle and sophisticated joke, in which aggression is concealed by wit," he said. "This shows how the aggression that leads to humor eventually becomes separated from it as wit, jokes and other comic forms which then take on a life of their own."

Shuster also found that male humor evolves. While young boys were curious, teens would try to get him to fall and young men were most aggressive of all.