Sexism and Jokes: a Case Study

The aim of this paper is to analyse how the interviewees reacted to sexist jokes and to compare it to how they reacted to sexist statements, in order to find out if there is a discrepancy between what people perceive as humour and a serious statement. The interviewees filled out a questionnaire made up of three statements on three of the most common sexist remarks and of three sexist jokes related to the statements. The case study highlights that there are two tendencies: the interviewees either agreed or disagreed with both the statement and the joke, or they disagreed with one and agreed with the other, showing that is it possible to laugh at something with which we do not necessarily agree.