Humor In 'Guys And Men' By Dave Barry

“Guys” and “Men” the two vague words that describe the male species. With that, there comes the idea of what it actually takes to achieve the label of man vs. guy. Is there a sort of moral code or set of rules guys look at before walking through the pearly gates they call “Manhood”? In his clever but humorous essay, “Guys vs Men”, Dave Barry talks about what certain degrees that it takes to be a “man” or what it takes to be a “guy”. Barry explains the importance of what manhood or what being manly means to the male gender. After I read the article I gathered that most “men” tend to be more serious and show more self control to where as a “guy” may have less responsibilities and is more insensitive in comparison. Being a male you typically

Barry is able to come up with a clever way to recognize what the differences are, while mixing humor in with it. Barry starts of his article with very subtle questions about what manhood truly is and what it means to a Man vs. a Guy. Using humor to address the differences between the two, was a good thing to do. The topic of Manhood is touchy to some guys so using humor really lightened things up. The first time I started to notice Barry using the good humor was when he was talking about how guys have to have the new hottest thing out. He mentions that the only reason why guys like the space shuttles is because it's an intense and spectacular item. He says,“Guys can tinker with it practically forever, and occasionally even get it to work, and use it to place other complex mechanical items in orbit, where they almost immediately break, which provides a great excuse to send the Space Shuttle up again. Its Guy Heaven” (Barry 942). Barry uses his wit here as he makes fun of guys, when it comes to fixing things. I can't even name off how many times i've heard of a guy's creating makeshift tools to fix important things praying that it would work. He then talks about the love guys have for pointless competition. This is probably one of the most accurate things Barry could say about guys. Guys will always have the need to claim dominance in any scenario and the best way you

Most of the humor that he uses is made towards an audience of the male gender. Mocking women in his article would be an understatement in my opinion. I feel like Barry connects to his male audience throughout the article a lot, making it harder for him to connect to a larger audience. There are a couple lines from his article that really stood out to me, as a woman. The first one is when he was talking about how guys like neat stuff such as space shuttles and he said “I am not saying that women haven’t been involved in the development or use of this stuff. I'm saying that, without guys, this stuff would probably not exist: just as, for women, virtually every piece of furniture in the world would still be in its original position”( Barry 942). People (women especially) would take this as him saying that women are typically only good for simple pointless stuff such as moving furniture. In the last part of Barry's article he talks about guys not having a moral code that they follow when it comes to certain things like being loyal. Not only is he talking about a touchy subject, but at the same time he talks bad about significant others. He compares wives or girlfriends to a Black Widow spider which are most commonly known for eating the male partner before, during or after copulation. Barry really starts to make you think if you are anyone that is in a relationship with the male gender.