This article describes research on the relative humour in many different jokes. For the Monty Python sketch about jokes as military weapons, see The Funniest Joke in the World.

The world's funniest joke is a term used by Richard Wiseman of the University of Hertfordshire in 2002 to summarize one of the results of his research. For his experiment, he created a website where people could submit and rate over 10,000 jokes. Purposes of the research included discovering the joke that had the widest appeal and understanding among different cultures, demographics and countries.

The winner:

Two hunters are out in the woods when one of them collapses. He doesn't seem to be breathing and his eyes are glazed. The other guy whips out his phone and calls the emergency services. He gasps: "My friend is dead! What can I do?" The operator says: "Calm down, I can help. First, let's make sure he's dead." There is a silence, then a shot is heard. Back on the phone, the guy says: "OK, now what?"

An early runner-up was this joke:

"Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are going camping. They pitch their tent under the stars and go to sleep. Sometime in the middle of the night Holmes wakes Watson up.

"Watson, look up at the stars, and tell me what you deduce."

Watson says, "I see millions of stars and even if a few of those have planets, it's quite likely there are some planets like Earth, and if there are a few planets like Earth out there, there might also be life."

Holmes replied: "Watson, you idiot, somebody stole our tent!"

The study documented regional differences in humour, as well as variations between the sexes. Men preferred more aggressive jokes, as well as sexual innuendo, while women preferred word play. Wiseman points out that this is the joke that the most people found reasonably funny, and that it would be unreasonable to expect any joke to be universally judged superior to all others.

The aim of the research was to shed some light on how the brain works.

The experiment was conducted in Britain, where researchers solicited people around the world to contribute jokes as well as judge them. At the conclusion of the experiment, the scientists had evaluated over 40,000 submitted jokes and tallied nearly 2 million votes.

External links

• The LaughLab website (http://www.laughlab.co.uk/home.html)
• Article in Nature (http://www.nature.com/news/2001/011227/full/011227-1.html)
• Article in New Scientist (http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991719)
• Article on CNN (2002) (http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/science/10/03/joke.funniest/)
• Article on CNN (2001) (http://edition.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/12/20/britain.laughter/index.html)
• Article on HLT magazine (http://www.hltmag.co.uk/jan02/joke.htm)
• Some reactions of comedians on the World Funniest Joke (http://www.popculturemadness.com/JOKE.html)
• A book is also published: The British Association for the Advancement of Science: Laughlab: The Scientific Search for the World's Funniest Joke, Arrow , ISBN 0099446871
• Arizona Jokes (http://www.azpaths.com/humor)