The Influence of Gender Factors in Stand-Up Comedy: An Experimental Study of Audience Responses
Abstract
and personal perspectives to convey emotions and ideas to the public. In recent years, China's stand-up comedy industry has undergone
a significant change which evolves from a niche form of entertainment into the second-largest category of theatrical performance. Approximately 48, 800 commercial performances are held annually with a growth rate of 42%. The rapid expansion has elevated stand-up
comedy's influence. Among the various topics that have generated public interest, gender-related issues have attracted particular attention.
This study aims at investigating the impact of gender in stand-up comedy. Participants will listen to stand-up comedy clips performed by
comedians of different genders focusing on gender-related topics. Post evaluation and recognition will be served as dependent variables.
At the same time, the subjects' gender is introduced as a moderating variable. The results reveal that the subjects generally prefer male
performers. When exposed to identical topics, participants give higher ratings to male performers, though they consider males were more
offensive. Participants also demonstrated significantly better recognition performance for male performers. Participants' gender also could
influence the evaluation. Female participants gave male performers higher ratings, whereas male participants perceived female performers
less offensive. Furthermore, the study finds that subjects generally prefer self-deprecating contents in which the performer's gender aligns
with the target of ridicule. This research extends incongruity-resolution theory to stand-up comedy. It reveals that the audiences' feedback
is jointly shaped by various factors, including the gender and content orientation. These findings could broaden the understanding of media-based humor and gender-related social cognition.
Keywords
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.70711/rcha.v4i8.10196
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