Did you hear the one about?: Typological and spousal differences in the planning of jokes and sense of humor in marriage

This study examines the rehearsal of jokes in terms of imagined interactions and sense of humor among couples who are differentiated by their philosophies and beliefs about marriage based on Fitzpatrick's (1988) marital typology. The superiority theory of humor usage claims that power is attributed to joke‐tellers and that a failure to understand the punch line renders listeners as lacking a sense of humor or being too ignorant to understand the joke. This theory has argued that gender differences in telling jokes in marriage reflect husbands telling jokes with wives reinforcing the jokes by laughing at the jokes. This pattern reinforces the idea that humor is primarily a masculine trait in marriage while humor appreciation is a feminine trait. Support was found for this theory as husbands reported a higher orientation toward humor in terms of liking and appreciating the telling of jokes compared to the wives. Participants were divided into traditional, independent, and separate marital types. Traditionals were higher in humor orientation than other marital types. In addition, spouses high in humor orientations reported rehearsing more jokes than those low in humor orientation. Results are discussed in terms of the superiority theory of humor usage, imagined interactions, and typological differences in marriage.

Key concepts:

• Humor usage
• marital types
• superiority theory
• imagined interactions