Forget the big car, the big heart, or even the big house. The quickest way to a woman's heart is the ability to poke fun at yourself.

Anthropologist Gil Greengross, who conducted a two-year study into the art of seduction, has discovered that self-deprecating humour is the most attractive trait in a man.

The less serious he is, the more women seriously want him. A witty man can, apparently, have us laughing all the way to the bed.

"Many studies show that a sense of humour is sexually attractive, especially to women, but we've found that self-deprecating humour is the most attractive of all," said Greengross, whose Dissing Oneself: The Sexual Attractiveness of Self-Deprecating Humour, will be published later this month in Evolutionary Psychology.

But this kind of humour is not to be confused with lacking in confidence, he warns. "It is a risky form of humour because it can draw attention to one's real faults, thereby diminishing the self-deprecator's status in the eyes of others," the New Mexico University scientist said.

So what we want is a man who can poke fun at himself, but who knows his own mind, too. A prime example is the character Hugh Grant plays in Notting Hill who lists off the contents of his fridge while attempting to woo Julia Roberts: "Would you like orange juice or something cold -- Coke, water, some disgusting sugary drink pretending to have something to do with fruits of the forest?" he asks.

Going one better, a friend of mine was wooed by a guy with a very classy fridge "routine" -- performed the first night they met. "Oh please don't look in there," he said. "There are items in that fridge that I have to shave every morning." They were married within six months.

"Self-deprecating humour can be an especially reliable indicator, not only of general intelligence and verbal creativity, but also of moral virtues such as humility," according to Mr Greengross.

But Grant didn't have the monopoly on the bumbling character. Think of Jack Lemmon's wonderful Felix Unger in the 1968 classic, The Odd Couple. His cute one-liners and constant "dissing" of himself see him winning the affections of not one, but two, single ladies, as he giggles happily on the sofa with the adoring Pigeon sisters.

And the comic actor repeated the success in the stylish film The Apartment, when his "doormat" character CC Baxter vied with his boss for the attentions of the smart elevator attendant played by sexy Shirley MacLaine.

Lemmon was himself the epitome of the stereotype: talking about his own birth, he said: "I was born in an elevator. Of course, it was going down at the time."

For more modern versions of the "cute 'n'funny guy", think of Hawkeye in M*A*S*H, or bang up to date -- JD in Scrubs.

The ability to laugh at himself might also explain the meteoric rise of the animal known as the Irish comic -- going back to Dave Allen. "Am I the Irish comedian with half a inger? No, I'm the Irish comedian with nine-and-a-half fingers," he said once, referring to the missing tip of one of his digits.

And women adored him, in the same way that we just can't get enough of cute Dylan Moran or highly irreverent Tommy Tiernan. Let's face it, girls: wouldn't you rather a night out with hilarious Hector O hEochagain and Dara O Briain than hunky Brian Ormond and Baz Ashmawy?

When it comes to humour, timing is everything. My friend Julie is smitten by a guy she met in Waterstone's last month who told her: "I asked the assistant where the self-help section was, but she said telling me would defeat the purpose."

Irish people have a good history of taking the mickey out of ourselves. "I saw a notice that said 'Drink Canada Dry' and I've just started," Brendan Behan is quoted as saying.

Even Michael Collins was known by friends to be a master of the witty one-liner. However, one of his best-known one-liners was to be one of his last: "Yerra, they'll never shoot me in my own county," he said, just before embarking on that fateful journey to West Cork in August 1922.

During the latest research, Greengross was amazed at how often self-deprecating humour was a winner with women: "The frequent use of this humour in sexual contexts -- with potential mates, established mates or sexual rivals -- was astonishing," he noted.

But can there be any truth in the rumour that one of the Irish respondents in the survey said: "I tried to be less self-deprecating, but I was just rubbish at it."

'Putting yourself down on stage is like beating the heckler to the punch'

If there's one Irish man who knows all about self-deprecating humour, it's comedian Jarlath Regan.

The Kildare man took the mickey out of himself on national television earlier this year with his documentary Nodoby Knows ... Jarlath Regan on TV3.

In it the 28-year-old attempted to woo Edinburgh audiences with his witty one-liners and good old-fashioned Irish charm. And this year the glutton for punishment returned to the Scottish capital for the city's comedy festival where he made his debut last year to rave reviews.

"Well, if there's one thing Irish people hate more than anything, it's someone who talks themselves up," he says.

"It makes us uneasy. We struggle to know what to say when someone starts to tell you how great they are.

"I think that's why the expression 'Fair play to ya' was invented."

He says the same rules apply to stand-up comedy. Self-deprecating humour is essential for a stand-up comedian to convince the audience that they are not simply on stage because they think they're brilliant.

"Putting yourself down on stage is like beating the heckler to the punch.

"If you're already taking the piss out of yourself, it would be unkind for someone else to join in," he remarks. So, what's Jarlath's number-one putdown?

"The comedian Zach Galifianakis wrote one of my favourite self-putdowns ever: 'I recently learned that the only time that it's acceptable to shout out 'I have diarrhoea!' is while playing scrabble'."