| This thesis is concerned with the relationship between gender and conversational joking styles. It delves into the research on humor and gender, focuses on a subcategory of humor - conversational joking, analyzes all humor moves for formal characteristics and functional features in hosting language, highlights distinct features of hosts' and hostesses' humorous interactions and positive effects of teasing, suggests the two major functions of conversational joking - identity display and relational identity display, and discusses the construction of gender through humor.Conversational joking or situational humor has been regarded as a double-edged sword that both diffuses and controls conflict, which is much determined by the topic, the situation, and the interlocutors involved. Teases directed at others and self-directed humors are perhaps the most vulnerable in this regard. They present the greatest interpersonal risk. Teasing intended as kidding maybe taken as an insult, and self-directed joking may be considered as a confession of inadequacy with the exception that interlocutors know each other well. People extend and build on one another's humorous comments when they are familiar with each other, and with each other's sense of humor. Moreover, the process is generative or circular, since this kind of humor constructs and contributes to the solidarity of a group. Collaboration among speakers constructs intimacy and thus a key function of conversational joking is the creation and maintenance of group solidarity among speakers.Conversational joking in the hosts' interactions in Chinese TV and radio variety shows and talk shows offers us a unique opportunity to (1) study possible linguistic innovation of humor and gender of the time and (2) test the viability of media-based data as a surrogate to "real-world" data in sociolinguistic research. In these programs, teasing occurs at a high frequency and self-denigration is adopted by hosts as a strategy. Frequency of teasing and the strategy of self-directed joking reflect the typical layering of forms in language. Moreover, due to gender composition of hosts, the relationship between gender and humor is interesting to explore. In this respect, these findings support the claim that media language does reflect what is going on in languages and may even pave the way for innovation. This paper examines variation in conversational joking through 24 transcripts of interactions among hosts and hostess in TV and Radio programs. It investigates whether there is much difference or similarity in hosts' and hostesses' humorous talks and if there are, what are they. Then in detailed analysis, this paper explains the results with functions of conversational joking in hosting language, and discusses the outcome of identity display and relational identity display through conversational joking. It also examines how conversational joking between hosts and hostesses eventually serves the construction of gender. In the end, according to results of the data, the present trend of women's humor in conversation is discussed.Based on the data, the author finds that there are similarities as well as differences among hosts and hostesses concerning conversational joking (CJ). Teasing is a common occurrence in both speeches of hosts and hostesses. In general, hosts are more aggressive in their joking, and produce self-denigrating jokes more often than female presenters. Female presenters, in contrast with traditional submissive female models, are found to be witty and competitive in studio settings. However, as a rule, they are more cooperative than their male counterpart, and offer more laughter to align with their partner. In conversational joking, individual identity and relational identity among participants are established and confirmed. Through humor and other means, hosts constitute themselves as masculine men, while hostesses' humor both confirms conventional femininity and serves as a site of resistance to stereotypes of women.
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