“This is not stand-up, but criminal cringe”: reproduction and overcoming of gender stereotypes in Russian-language comedy shows
Research Article
How to Cite
Kashina M.A., Agaeva S.K., Zharkova D.V., Zubkova K.A. (2025) “This is not stand-up, but criminal cringe”: reproduction and overcoming of gender stereotypes in Russian-language comedy shows. Zhurnal sotsiologii i sotsialnoy antropologii (The Journal of Sociology and Social Anthropology), 28(4): 219–256 (in Russian). DOI: https://doi.org/10.31119/jssa.2025.28.4.10 EDN: TCXVUE
Abstract
Comedy shows, and stand-up comedy in particular, constitute an integral element of contemporary mass culture. Through social media, comedians’ performances permeate the informational space of internet users regardless of their individual interest in such content. Despite the increasing prevalence of humanistic tendencies within society, discriminatory and derogatory humor continues to retain its popularity. The article investigates how this type of humor establishes a cultural foundation for gender discrimination by fostering tolerance toward bias and verbal affronts directed at women. The authors analyze the factors underlying the demand for sexist and feminist jokes in Russian-language stand-up comedy and assess their respective functions within this genre. Empirical foundation: the study is based on an online survey (N = 1439) and three focus groups (one comprising viewers of comedy shows and two comprising local stand-up performers). Within the survey, respondents evaluated ten jokes (four feminist, four sexist, and two neutral) and completed the Gender Role Beliefs Scale (GRBS). The data were interpreted through the theoretical frameworks of the biased norm and ambivalent sexism. Analytical procedures included factor analysis and linear regression. The findings reveal both comedians’ and audiences’ attitudes toward sexist and feminist humor, as well as their evaluations of the potential social consequences of these categories of humor. Principal conclusion: overtly sexist humor is increasingly being supplanted by a socially acceptable form of “intellectual sexism,” which nonetheless reinforces gender-based prejudice. The majority of comedians maintain that humor does not engender significant social consequences. Conversely, audiences emphasize the existence of such consequences: sexist jokes reinforce gender stereotypes within mass consciousness, while feminist jokes may contribute to their deconstruction. Respondents who adhere to traditional conceptions of romantic or everyday relations between women and men tend not to perceive “intellectual sexism” as offensive, construing it instead as a personal opinion. Future research is intended to further explore the demand for feminist humor, as well as to examine distinctions between regional and federal (TV) stand-up comedy in the use of this type of material. To enhance the reliability of the findings, the study also proposes to broaden the sample, particularly by incorporating male viewers with traditional gender ideologies.
Keywords:
abuse, gender ideology, mass culture, gender performativity, derogatory humor, black humor
References
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Kanashina S.V. (2022) Internet meme and humor. Voprosy zhurnalistiki, pedagogiki, yazykoznaniya [Questions of Journalism, Pedagogy, Linguistics], 2: 317–328 (in Russian).
Mdivani M.O., Marina O., Lidskaya E.V. (2020) Russian-language version of the short Gender Role Beliefs Scale (GRBS). Sotsialnaya psikhologiya i obshchestvo [Social Psychology and Society], 11(3): 185–195 (in Russian).
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Rudakova E.A. (2025) Linguocognitive aspect of American youth humor about men and women (based on the TV series The Big Bang Theory). Filologicheskie nauki. Voprosy teorii i praktiki [Philological Sciences. Questions of Theory and Practice], 2: 703–711 (in Russian).
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Barreca R. (2013) They Used to Call Me Snow White… But I Drifted: Women's Strategic Use of Humor. University Press of New England.
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Greengross G., Silvia P.J., Nusbaum E.C. (2020) Sex differences in humor production ability: A meta-analysis. Journal of Research in Personality, 84: 103886.
Hershkowitz R. (2023) The Comedy Roast as American Ritual: Performing Race and Gender. Bowling Green State University.
Hofmann J., Platt T., Lau C., Torres-Marín J. (2023) Gender differences in humor-related traits, humor appreciation, production, comprehension, neural responses, use, and correlates: A systematic review. Current Psychology, 42(19): 16451–16464.
Kalin R., Tilby P.J. (1978) Development and validation of a sex role ideology scale. Psychological Reports, 42(3): 731–738.
Kilmartin C. (2015) Men’s violence against women: an overview. In: Religion and Men's Violence Against Women: 15–25.
Kramer C.A. (2013) An existentialist account of the role of humor against oppression. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, 26(4): 629–651.
Meghana J., Vijaya R. (2020) Humour and gender stereotypes. IASSI Quarterly, 39(1): 58–74.
Mendible M. (2019) Cultural Disenfranchisement and the Politics of Stigma. Ethnic Studies Review, 42(1): 7–24.
Nichols K. (2020) “I probably shouldn’t say this, should I… but…”: Mischievous masculinities as a way for men to convey reflexivity and make choices in sporting sites. In: Magrath R., Cleland J., Anderson E. (eds.) The Palgrave Handbook of Masculinity and Sport. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham: 151–169. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19799-5_9.
Nyakundi N., Mudogo B., Barasa D. (2024) Examining sexist inferences on The Churchill Show's stand-up comedy. Journal of Research and Academic Writing, 1(2): 1–9.
Oring E. (2010) Engaging Humor. University of Illinois Press.
Pluszczyk A., Świątek A. (2023) Linguistic mechanisms as a source of humour in selected verbal jokes: The analysis of stylistic figures and pragmatic mechanisms. Językoznawstwo, 19(2): 235–248.
Reilly P. (2017) The Layers of a Clown: Career Development in Cultural Production Industries. Academy of Management Discoveries, 3(2).
Rijken A.J., Merz E.M. (2014) Double standards: Differences in norms on voluntary childlessness for men and women. European Sociological Review, 30(4): 470–482.
Thomae M., Viki G.T. (2013) Why did the woman cross the road? The effect of sexist humor on men's rape proclivity. Journal of Social, Evolutionary, and Cultural Psychology, 7(3): 250–269.
Venkatesan S., Gopalkrishnan I.K., Gy Y.K. (2023) Ethnic humor: The role of culture in mirth, comedy, and laughter. International Journal of Indian Psychology, 11(3): 360–368.
Walker R., Moraine A.A., Black K.J. (2021) Regression in JASP. In: Walker R. (ed.) Exploring Diversity with Statistics Using JASP. Chattanooga (Tenn.): University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. [https://scholar.utc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=open-textbooks].
Woodzicka J.A., Mallett R.K., Melchiori K.J. (2020) Gender differences in using humor to respond to sexist jokes. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, 33(2): 219–238.
Zhijiu Y.U. (2024) Debunking Stereotypes Through Humor. Asia-Pacific Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 4(4): 46–60. https://doi.org/10.53789/j.1653–0465.2024.0404.007
Verbovataya Yu.V. (2023) Communicative strategies for achieving comic effect by performers of the stand-up genre. Uspekhi Gumanitarnykh Nauk [Successes of the Humanities], 2: 142–148 (in Russian).
Verzhinskaya I.V. (2011) Humor: history and classification of the concept. Vestnik Chelyabinskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta [Bulletin of Chelyabinsk State University], 11(226): 29–32 (in Russian).
Dmitriev A.V., Sychyov A.A. (2005) Laughter: A Socio-Philosophical Analysis. Moscow: Alfa-M (in Russian).
Zharkova D.V., Zaitseva A.V., Popova D.M. (2025) Hegemony of traditions. Part 1. Images of masculinity in popular Russian-language cinema and music hits. Novizna. Eksperiment. Traditsii [Novelty. Experiment. Traditions], 1: 17–29 (in Russian).
Kalita I. (2025) Stand-up in the mirror of language — language in the mirror of stand-up: the case of Kazakhstan. Jazyk a Kultúra, 16: 8–25 (in Russian).
Kamyshanova A.A. (2017) Humor strategies of female media characters on Russian TV (based on TV shows, 2000–2015). Master’s thesis, Higher School of Economics, Moscow (in Russian).
Kanashina S.V. (2022) Internet meme and humor. Voprosy zhurnalistiki, pedagogiki, yazykoznaniya [Questions of Journalism, Pedagogy, Linguistics], 2: 317–328 (in Russian).
Mdivani M.O., Marina O., Lidskaya E.V. (2020) Russian-language version of the short Gender Role Beliefs Scale (GRBS). Sotsialnaya psikhologiya i obshchestvo [Social Psychology and Society], 11(3): 185–195 (in Russian).
Melnikov S.S. (2015) Sociology of humor: on the critique of three fundamental theories of the comic. Vestnik ekonomiki, prava i sotsiologii [Bulletin of Economics, Law and Sociology], 1: 213–217 (in Russian).
Rudakova E.A. (2025) Linguocognitive aspect of American youth humor about men and women (based on the TV series The Big Bang Theory). Filologicheskie nauki. Voprosy teorii i praktiki [Philological Sciences. Questions of Theory and Practice], 2: 703–711 (in Russian).
Stepanova A.V., Kvaldykova E.V. (2021) Structural and linguistic features of stand-up. Mezhdunarodnyi zhurnal gumanitarnykh i estestvennykh nauk [International Journal of Humanities and Natural Sciences], 5(1): 111–115 (in Russian).
Tulchinsky G.L. (2023) The modern university — a generator of the image of the future or monetization of the present? Yaroslavskiy pedagogicheskiy vestnik [Yaroslavl Pedagogical Bulletin], 4: 190–194 (in Russian).
Ulyanova Yu.I. (2011) Main approaches to scientific research of individual features of the sense of humor. Armiya i obshchestvo [Army and Society], 3(27): 21–25 (in Russian).
Yakimanskaya I.S. (2020) Gender features of the sense of humor as a type of psychological defense. Mir nauki. Pedagogika i psikhologiya [World of Science. Pedagogy and Psychology], 3(32) (in Russian).
Barreca R. (2013) They Used to Call Me Snow White… But I Drifted: Women's Strategic Use of Humor. University Press of New England.
Bem S.L. (1994) Defending the Lenses of Gender. Psychological Inquiry, 5(1): 97–101. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327965pli0501_17.
Bing J.M. (2004) Is feminist humor an oxymoron? Women and Language, 27(1): 22–33.
Butler J. (1990) Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge.
Decker W.H., Rotondo D.M. (2001) Relationships among gender, type of humor, and perceived leader effectiveness. Journal of Managerial Issues, 13(4): 450–465.
El Jihaoui M., Abra O.E.K., Mansouri K. (2025) Factors Affecting Student Academic Performance: A Combined Factor Analysis of Mixed Data and Multiple Linear Regression Analysis. IEEE Access, 13: 15946–15964.
Ferguson M.A., Ford T.E. (2008) Disparagement humor: A theoretical and empirical review of psychoanalytic, superiority, and social identity theories. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, 21(3): 283–312.
Ford T.E., Wentzel E.R., Lorion J. (2001) Effects of exposure to sexist humor on perceptions of normative tolerance of sexism. European Journal of Social Psychology, 31(6): 677–691.
Glick P., Fiske S.T. (1997) Hostile and Benevolent Sexism: Measuring Ambivalent Sexist Attitudes Toward Women. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 21(1): 119–135. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471–6402.1997.tb00104.x.
Greengross G., Silvia P.J., Nusbaum E.C. (2020) Sex differences in humor production ability: A meta-analysis. Journal of Research in Personality, 84: 103886.
Hershkowitz R. (2023) The Comedy Roast as American Ritual: Performing Race and Gender. Bowling Green State University.
Hofmann J., Platt T., Lau C., Torres-Marín J. (2023) Gender differences in humor-related traits, humor appreciation, production, comprehension, neural responses, use, and correlates: A systematic review. Current Psychology, 42(19): 16451–16464.
Kalin R., Tilby P.J. (1978) Development and validation of a sex role ideology scale. Psychological Reports, 42(3): 731–738.
Kilmartin C. (2015) Men’s violence against women: an overview. In: Religion and Men's Violence Against Women: 15–25.
Kramer C.A. (2013) An existentialist account of the role of humor against oppression. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, 26(4): 629–651.
Meghana J., Vijaya R. (2020) Humour and gender stereotypes. IASSI Quarterly, 39(1): 58–74.
Mendible M. (2019) Cultural Disenfranchisement and the Politics of Stigma. Ethnic Studies Review, 42(1): 7–24.
Nichols K. (2020) “I probably shouldn’t say this, should I… but…”: Mischievous masculinities as a way for men to convey reflexivity and make choices in sporting sites. In: Magrath R., Cleland J., Anderson E. (eds.) The Palgrave Handbook of Masculinity and Sport. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham: 151–169. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19799-5_9.
Nyakundi N., Mudogo B., Barasa D. (2024) Examining sexist inferences on The Churchill Show's stand-up comedy. Journal of Research and Academic Writing, 1(2): 1–9.
Oring E. (2010) Engaging Humor. University of Illinois Press.
Pluszczyk A., Świątek A. (2023) Linguistic mechanisms as a source of humour in selected verbal jokes: The analysis of stylistic figures and pragmatic mechanisms. Językoznawstwo, 19(2): 235–248.
Reilly P. (2017) The Layers of a Clown: Career Development in Cultural Production Industries. Academy of Management Discoveries, 3(2).
Rijken A.J., Merz E.M. (2014) Double standards: Differences in norms on voluntary childlessness for men and women. European Sociological Review, 30(4): 470–482.
Thomae M., Viki G.T. (2013) Why did the woman cross the road? The effect of sexist humor on men's rape proclivity. Journal of Social, Evolutionary, and Cultural Psychology, 7(3): 250–269.
Venkatesan S., Gopalkrishnan I.K., Gy Y.K. (2023) Ethnic humor: The role of culture in mirth, comedy, and laughter. International Journal of Indian Psychology, 11(3): 360–368.
Walker R., Moraine A.A., Black K.J. (2021) Regression in JASP. In: Walker R. (ed.) Exploring Diversity with Statistics Using JASP. Chattanooga (Tenn.): University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. [https://scholar.utc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=open-textbooks].
Woodzicka J.A., Mallett R.K., Melchiori K.J. (2020) Gender differences in using humor to respond to sexist jokes. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, 33(2): 219–238.
Zhijiu Y.U. (2024) Debunking Stereotypes Through Humor. Asia-Pacific Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 4(4): 46–60. https://doi.org/10.53789/j.1653–0465.2024.0404.007
Article
Received: 22.04.2025
Accepted: 25.12.2025
Citation Formats
Other cite formats:
ACM
[1]
Kashina, M.A., Agaeva, S.K., Zharkova, D.V. and Zubkova, K.A. 2025. “This is not stand-up, but criminal cringe”: reproduction and overcoming of gender stereotypes in Russian-language comedy shows. Zhurnal sotsiologii i sotsialnoy antropologii (The Journal of Sociology and Social Anthropology). 28, 4 (Dec. 2025), 219–256. DOI:https://doi.org/10.31119/jssa.2025.28.4.10.
Section
Sociology of Gender
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