Laughter is so important to humans that we learn how to do it shortly after we figure out how to crap ourselves. Within weeks of birth, babies are laughing, even though they don't yet have the cognitive development to understand why something is funny. By the time they're 4, children are laughing about 15 times an hour.
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Usually at fart jokes. Thank goodness we've moved on.
So kids will laugh at pretty much anything, but what about producing humor themselves? In a landmark study, one researcher found that women make the same number of jokes as men -- when they're children. But around age 6, something changes; the number of jokes girls make decreases, and it never evens out again. That's because, around the time girls start school, society gives them a joking lobotomy, so to speak. Think back to elementary school. You probably had a class clown, and it was almost certainly a boy. Boys are allowed to be loud and funny and play practical jokes and be annoying little shits, and girls are encouraged to act like little ladies. And ladies sit quietly and decidedly do not draw attention to themselves through loud jokes or pranks.
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She just put the cat in there.
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