Sibling Rivalry Continues Over Laughs

Despite the dual trend of falling birth rates and dropping ideal family size, about 90 percent of people in Western families grow up with at least one biological, half, step or adoptive sibling, making today, National Sibling Day, a day most people could (or should!) celebrate. The holiday, which comes about a month before Mother’s Day in the United States and two months before Father’s Day, was originally created by Claudia Evart. The native New Yorker set up a charity to honor the sibling relationship after she lost both her older brother and younger sister. While it is not nationally recognized in the U.S., 49 states acknowledge the day and it is recognized in countries like the United Kingdom, Australia, and India.

While the day is a way of appreciating siblings, what better and more honest way of celebrating this unique relationship than with a little sibling rivalry. According to a recent YouGov poll, 42 percent of respondents in the U.S. thought they were much or slightly funnier than their sibling. Another quarter of respondents thought they were equally as funny as their sibling. Only 12 percent of people thought they were the sibling without the sense of humor, with those respondents saying they were much less or slightly less funny than their sibling.