The use of wisecracking in Hammett, Chandler, Parks’ Shaf, and Polanski’s Chinatown

In Hammett, Chandler, Parks’ Shaf, and Polanski’s Chinatown, among many others, “cracking wise” generally appears as a form of masculine dominance; there’s almost always the sense the wisecracker is hoping to pick a fight with the person he’s insulting. Gould’s Chandler and Bridges’ Lebowski are vastly less aggressive characters, yet they also display a tendency to crack wise. What is the function of wisecracking—in terms of gender politics, of masculinity, of the revelation of a character’s (and hence, perhaps, the film’s) worldview—in these later portrayals? What is the benefit to the later directors of keeping this aspect of the hardboiled detective when they abandon so many others? Your argument will almost certainly stand or fall on the strength of your close readings of particular wisecracks.