Understanding Asexuality

So, in short, sexual tension (whether recognized by the person or not) may relate to the production and appreciation of sexual humor.{However, most modern theorists do not buy all of the elements of a classic tension-release model. Humor is not necessarily “cathartic” in the therapeutic sense; that is, it does not necessarily reduce the tendency to engage in future behaviors related to the tension (Ferguson & Ford, 2008; Martin, 2007). For example, research shows that sexist humor does not decrease the tendency to engage in sexist behavior soon afterward; sometimes the opposite occurs, and sexist humor may even lead to complex domineering behaviors (Hodson, Rush, & MacInnis, 2010). Thus, a straightforward catharsis model of humor based on sexual or other tension may not be correct. One alternative but related explanation for this kind of humor is that there may be a pleasantness associated with being able to release the tension of a repressed or suppressed impulse or motive, but such humor does not reduce our tendencies to engage in this impulse; it just releases us from the unpleasantness of not being able to express it. For example, modern social psychologists talk about disparagement humor of groups as releasing “negative intergroup motives” (Hodson, Rush, & MacInnis, 2010, p. 661).} But why is any of this—interesting though it may be—relevant to asexuality? It is relevant because sexual humor and the way it functions may reveal something about asexuality and vice versa; that is, asexuality may reveal how sexual humor functions. For example, are asexual people immune to sexual humor, because they, presumably, have so little sexual tension? Or, to put it in another way, do asexual people “get” sexual humor on a deep level, or on any level? And does this present a sneaky way of finding out whether asexual people are truly sexual (deep down)—to see if they laugh at a sexual joke? If they do laugh, does this not imply that there is some sexual energy/motive being discharged or released? Got you! You laughed. You must be sexual!

Did you laugh at the Viagra joke at the beginning of this chapter? (Or, if you had heard it before, did you laugh the first time you read it, or the first time someone told it to you?) Let’s analyze the reasons why someone might or might not laugh at this joke. Of course, there are differences among people in how much they laugh in general, and so, of course, some of the individual differences in humor appreciation have to do with basic variations in personality and temperament (e.g., happiness, gregariousness, jolliness). But let’s take this out of the equation for now, and concentrate on the account of humor appreciation and susceptibility put forward by Freud and company—namely, that it often has to do with the release of, or is at least facilitated by, sexual tension. Given the sexual content of this joke, a straightforward interpretation driven by this theory would say that those who have tension about their sexuality are more likely to laugh at this joke.

However, even if we accept the tension-reduction model of humor, we also need to realize that other elements are important for this joke to be effective. In particular, besides tension, a person also must cognitively “get” the joke. So, the individual must understand how the detail and the punch line create and then resolve (even in a bizarre way) the conflict posed by the story. Thus, in addition to an effective use and release of tension, the humorist must provide a satisfactory and meaningful resolution to the puzzle or situation raised in the joke. To accomplish this, the information in the joke or story must be relevant (i.e., “meaningful”) on some level to the individual, or at least have some connection to activities that the individual is familiar with, so that he or she ultimately can “get” the joke.

Interestingly, the satisfactory resolution provided by the punch line (if a person does “get it”) usually involves some kind of incongruity. In other words, it may involve holding two seemingly contradictory ideas together simultaneously, or some unexpected twist—thus, a bit of a surprise ending or a clever reversal of fortune. Yet this incongruity or twist usually still resolves the conflict or drama in some meaningful way, even if bizarrely so. And the person who appreciates this humor must get (on some level) that a resolution, incongruous as it may be, has occurred.