Post 2: Humor, Barreca vs. Jenna&Julien

While reading through Regina Barreca’s They Used to Call Me Snow White… But I Drifted, as well as talking about the various assigned readings during class discussions, I decided I wanted to try to apply Barreca’s 1991 generalizations about gender and humor to a modern couple in 2020; personally, I would like to think at least a fraction of the injustice Barreca writes about has since been recognized and, for the most part, taken care of.

              As for Regina Barreca’s description of female versus male humor, I will be only considering content from They Used to Call Me Snow White… But I Drifted. Women, according to Barreca, “…have been labeled as ‘unfunny’, as less likely to laugh than their male counterparts” (6), as they are expected to be “passive and receptive, rather than active and initiating” (7). The female culture that Barreca is writing about in the early 90s pulls from the stereotypical housewife model of a hyper-feminine, uber-pliable, and overly encouraging mother, but has since bled into the lives of the more modern working women who are still trying to navigate through the patriarchal society of America. Regina Barreca’s analysis of men states that “[many] get uneasy when they’re not included in something” (9) and they are consistently fighting for the center of attention. However, Barreca also admits that “…there are men confident enough, generous enough, and smart enough to laugh at our jokes when they understand or find them funny, and who, even when they don’t get it, allow us our own laughter undisturbed” (9).

              Phew, I apologize if that all felt a little stuffy for a blog post. You get the points she’s making, right? I mean, we were all assigned the reading…

              For my comparison, I am going to be using the modern YouTube couple, Jenna Marbles and Julien Solomita, in the video “Giving Myself An E-Girl Makeover”, posted on January 9^th, 2020.

*Before starting, I would first like to say that there is a lot of cursing in this video, so watch at your own risk. As I am analyzing the actions and reactions of these two people in just one video, I would like to say that I am a huge fan of both Jenna and Julien and I am in no way trying to insult or degrade either of them, nor am I trying to say that either thinks less of one another for any reason. * Here is my (mostly) objective analysis of this 14-minute video:

              Just past one minute into the video (1:04), Jenna is already making self-deprecating jokes about both herself and her YouTube channel, and sprinkles them in throughout (5:12, 5:54) while Julien does not make one self-deprecating joke on-screen or behind the camera. However, before the two-minute mark (1:47), Jenna is using loud, exaggerative expressions and voices (6:11) to evoke laughter in the audience, which does not align with Barreca’s ladylike stereotypes. Jenna’s humor is made up moreso of self-deprecating humor than Julien’s, though they both take advantage of volume and physical humor.  There are also more examples of Julien interrupting Jenna (4:01, 7:08, 7:34) rather than the other way around, and more examples of Jenna positively reacting and building off of Julien’s interjections and anecdotes (2:40, 7:47). Overall, Julien seems to use loud, sudden, explosive, physical humor in order to get a reaction both from the viewers of the video as well as from Jenna in the moment (8:48, 9:02, 10:40, 11:01, 12:17). Julien’s humor is portrayed as less mature and more random than Jenna’s, which falls into the generalizations that Barreca has made about men and humor.

              It seems to me that, while neither Jenna or Julien subscribe to the stereotypes of gender and humor that, for the past 30 years or so, feminist and equality-driven individuals have fought ruthlessly, there are still traces that remain between this particular man and woman, and of course in society as a whole. Whether it is the sexism so deeply ingrained into our culture that we never seem to escape from, or the age difference between Jenna (recently 33) and Julien (27), or maybe it is simply just the differences in personality and humor between two people, regardless of gender. Either way, it can be seen that Jenna is drawn to more self-deprecating humor, while Julien seems to gravitate towards outrageous, loud, and youthful humor, and some aspects of the models given by Regina Barreca hold true even today.

Sources:

Barreca, Regina. They Used to Call Me Snow White… But I Drifted. Lebanon: University Press of New England, 2013. PDF.

Giving Myself An E-Girl Makeover by Jenna Marbles.