Young Men See Humor as a Prized Value

Excerpt from an article in The New York Times
Monday, February 20, 2012

Comedy Central Survey Says Young Men See Humor as a Prized Value 

By BILL CARTER Comedy Central has a lot riding on, well, comedy. And now research it commissioned about how young men view humor has provided the cable channel with some encouraging conclusions about the preferences of its most important demographic group.

More than music, more than sports, more than “personal style,” comedy has become essential to how young men view themselves and others, the research showed.

Stuck in an elevator? Sixty-three percent of young men surveyed said they would choose to be there with Jon Stewart (or some other favorite comic), and only 15 percent said they would prefer that time with Eli Manning (or some other idolized athlete).

Eighty-eight percent of respondents said their sense of humor was crucial to their self-definition, 74 percent said “funny people are more popular,” and 58 percent said they sent out funny videos to make what might be called a special impression on someone else.

These sentiments were reflected in an online survey of 2,000 people conducted by Nielsen Entertainment Television. Additional conclusions were formed from the results of so-called buddy groups, run by the research group Sachs Insights, which brought together young men in 19 cities around the country. Comedy Central is studying the results to discern how valuable comedy has become to the generation known as millennials, which it defines as young adults born after the first Reagan inauguration, in 1981.