Anthropology Final Exam Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Anthropology Final Exam - Essay Example Humor is used in every level of society, in every country in the world. It may be seen as a ploy to garner the interest or desire of other people, namely women, as it is often quoted as being a prerequisite for a man to make a woman laugh. According to the website www.makewomenlaugh.org (2010), â€Å"humor is the key to attracting women.† It is seen as a huge role taker in life in attraction in meeting as well as relationships. Humor begets laughter, begets attraction and so on. â€Å"Men who can make women laugh are irresistible†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (www.makewomenlaugh.org, 2010). In a study performed by Martin & Gray, (1996), they sought to prove that humor might not be appreciated without a boost from audience laughter in situation comedies. Martin & Gray state in their hypothesis that â€Å"genuinely funny material† would be shown to the test group, with the existence of audience laughter will increase the natural occurrence of laughter of the individual. Although publish ed in a renowned periodical, I believe that Martin & Gray are right in this hypothesis, which they later proved. However, what may be â€Å"genuinely funny material† to one person may be dry, boring and dull to another. Humor is not something that can be categorized into any single section. Although similar to the aforementioned comparison of beauty, what is funny to one may be offensive to another. Therefore, it appears that the influence of the masses is what makes a mass produced bit of material funny or not. This closes many doors to those who find humor in otherwise unfunny circumstances. When it comes to humor, I completely support taking the First Amendment as it is written. There are no exceptions needed to employ it in regards to humor. We were given the protected right of freedom of speech, regardless of whether one person or millions agree or disagree. It is no different than watching a television program, which is known by the popular masses to be funny, while oth ers see no humor in it whatever. If you do not like what you are watching or hearing, change the channel or walk away. It is that simple. We as humans do that every single day, in the grocery store, at work or at home. If we do not like it, we can either do something to try changing it or walking away from it. If our attempts at changing the circumstance we do not like fail, we still have the option of protecting ourselves from it by ignoring it. The right to the freedom of speech was granted us by our Founding Fathers and by God Himself, in His provision of free will. We as humans should be afforded this right at any cost, as the right to speak freely is as important as the right to walk down the street of our neighborhood or use the restroom as we need. It may offend some or make others cry with laughter, but it is a protection that we were first given by God and was reiterated into law by our Founding Fathers. It often appears that women find different types of humor less funny t han others do, while men see things differently. Women tend not to engage in public rituals of humor with the result of embarrassment or insult. Men seem to have the market cornered on this. Men more typically employ â€Å"verbal duels, ritual insults, practical jokes, pranks, slapstick, institutionalized clowning and institutionalized joking†¦Ã¢â‚¬ , whereas women generally focus on the activities and appearance of the men in