By Karen
Sternheimer

No matter what your comedic taste, most stand-up comedians
have one thing in common: their jokes are based on observations of human
behavior.

Their observations sometimes ring true, or at least
entertain others by the conclusions they may draw. Because of the context,
comedians can sometimes push the envelope regarding the rules of polite social
behavior. Of course they may offend some—maybe a lot of people—in the process.

Comedians are interesting to think about sociologically;
what topics do they focus on? What conclusions do they draw?

In many cases, comedians use their perceptions to provide
their answers to larger sociological questions; part of the pleasure of comedy
is getting these answers, albeit unscientifically.

Jerry Seinfeld was particularly successful at making these
observations and using them as the basis for his 1990s hit show, Seinfeld. Called a “show about nothing,” Seinfeld built plots around everyday topics people regularly
experience but seldom discuss: waiting for a table at a restaurant, bringing
gifts for the host of a party, finding a parking spot, visiting aging
relatives, and even masturbation.

More recently, his web series Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee features Seinfeld talking with
other comedians over coffee, and invariably the conversation drifts towards their
observations about everyday topics. He and David
Letterman talked about having children later in life. Chris
Rock also talked about parenting, but focused on things you might not tell
your spouse when a child isn’t doing well at sports. (Rock also joked that
“kids need bullying”.) Larry
David made light of his divorce and his obsession with health; sociologists study all of these issues as well.

As Janis
Prince Inniss blogged about a few years ago, comedians often discuss
matters often not talked about openly: sexual behavior, racial and ethnic
stereotypes, gender issues, religion, and relationships.  Comedians might joke about groups in which
they are members—Jews may joke about Jews, African Americans about African
Americans, and so on—as well as their own relationships with spouses and family
members. It can seem less offensive if comedians refer to stereotypes about
their own ethnic groups, rather than others. It may give audiences a pass to
laugh at stereotypes they might not otherwise be comfortable admitting to hold
themselves.

We can learn a lot from both the kinds of jokes comedians
make and how audiences respond. What kinds of topics frequently populate jokes?
How can we turn those into research questions?

Take gender-based relationship humor: jokes where comedians
describe a scenario from their own romantic relationship. In one episode of the
Comedy Central show Inside Amy Schumer, Schumer’s
character (Amy Schumer) has just had a one-night-stand with a man she met the
night before. The episode shows their parallel reactions: Amy thinks she has
found “the one” and tells her friends about it over brunch. Cut to a shot of
the man in his underwear playing video games. Amy texts him; he looks at the
phone and says, “Who’s that?” and ignores the text. He later hangs out with his friends
in front of the TV, and when they ask what he did last night he shrugs and
says, “Nothing.”

Later, Amy goes to a bank to find out how to open a joint
checking account, a church to pick out a site for their wedding, tastes cakes
for the reception, and even chooses cemetery plots. She calls him from the
cemetery to make plans for the night and he tells her he doesn’t want to see
her again.

The joke here is that women can get carried away in romantic
fantasies about relationships that mean nothing to men. We might have similar experiences
(or friends who have these kinds of experiences) so  this notion seems to ring true. This joke can
form the basis of a sociological question: do women romanticize relationships
more than men?

Rather than simply asking people if they agree with this
statement, sociologists would conduct more in-depth research, perhaps
interviewing women and men about their experiences first meeting potential
mates and their hopes and expectations at the beginning. The results might be different
from the joke—but the humor itself tells us about how we tend to think about
men and women and heterosexual pairings.

What comedians’ observations can you translate into
sociological questions, and then research questions? Doing this makes sociology
fun—and shouldn’t mean you should laugh any less when you find something funny.