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In a way, simply asking why Stephen Colbert is sexy is a little insulting. As if there needs to be justification. "You think he's sexy? Why?" You'd never hear someone asking why Brad Pitt is sexy, but when it comes to someone like Stephen Colbert, researchers will eagerly pour thousands of dollars of grant money into figuring out how anyone could possibly be attracted to him. I guess now that cancer's cured, the scientists must all be super bored, so it sort of makes sense.

The general idea is that humor is a proxy for intelligence, the latter

being a sexually selected trait. Humans ascend the social hierarchy in

part because of the size of their brains rather than due to their brawn

(albeit in some settings such as in male prisons, brawn is a valuable

trait to possess hence the obsessive focus on building muscles within

the prison yards). Whereas both men and women desire intelligent mates,

there appears to be a greater importance placed on intelligence when it

comes to female mate choice. Not surprisingly then, men engage in

lekking behavior (sexual signaling within a specified physical space)

by putting on a full display of their comedic talents.

Hence, to the extent that Steven Colbert is an attractive man, much of

his desirability stems from his large brain as displayed via his quick

wit and comedic charm.

So it's not so much that women are attracted to funny men as it is a sense of humor is indicative of high intelligence, and intelligence is what really gets the ladies hot. Which is why Noam Chomsky is constantly landing inordinate amounts of poon.

[Via NFZ]