Readers still have thoughts on the subject:
Chelsea Handler? Sarah Silverman? Kathy Griffin? It seems Rosenberg is making a very fine distinction to claim their humor can't compare to Louis CK's. Women aren't funny for the same reason women aren't good at tech fields. Any field that has been dominated by men keeps the barriers to entry high and artificial, and maintains an environment that isn't friendly to those who would break in. When men decide what's funny, it turns out it's them.
Another writes:
I think the article [NYT] misses the forest for the trees. What's missing is that men use humor more frequently than women.
Whether men are actually funnier or not is somewhat besides the point, not to mention impossible to objectively measure. Part of humor is being able to take one's self and others lightly and then use it for light mocking. For whatever reason, many women do not feel as comfortable being joked about or joking about others, and certainly not in a playful way. This is the interesting fact that gets obscured by the ill-advised attempts to see which gender can write a funnier cartoon caption, which is more about cleverness than about actual day-to-day usage of humor (e.g. the people you would consider 'funniest' in everyday life are probably not particularly likely to write the funniest cartoon captions).
If you don't believe me regarding the use of humor by the genders, try joking with a guy about a physical or cognitive imperfection and then try the same thing with a woman. Indirectly, it's part of the reason so many more men can run afoul of workplace insensitivity rules. The attempt to tease or joke about one's self or friends is a part of the male socialization process in childhood, and is really not present for most women. In fact, if a woman jokes about another woman, it almost always will be behind that woman's back, and probably in the company of people who have an influence on that woman's well being.
Finally, comedians do not represent a whole gender. Comedians are professional joke tellers and they have different techniques and goals than you or I would. Either way, a Tina Fey would merely prove that women can be hilarious, and not that there are no differences in humor or in average funniness.
Another:
I don't know why this article bugs me so much. The study seems to end up saying that men aren't funnier, they are just perceived as funnier. Well, excuse me, but isn't the perception of a joke exactly what makes it funny? So in reality, if people perceive jokes told by men to be funnier … aren't they therefore funnier? The fact that people find men funnier means men are funnier.
The Dish 