Scientist reveals the world’s funniest joke

A scientist has put their hard-earned PhD to good use and officially discovered what the world’s funniest joke is. 

The finding of the world’s funniest joke is actually based on a study conducted 20 years ago.

Psychologist Dr. Richard Wiseman set up the study through the website LaughLab in 2001, where, over the course of a year, he invited 1.5 million people across the world to rate five randomly selected jokes out of a database of over 40,000. 

The results are in. The funniest joke in the world is…  World funniest joke scientist World funniest joke scientist

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 silence, and then a shot is heard. Back on the phone, the guy says: “OK, now what?” 

He said, “Many of the jokes submitted received higher ratings from certain groups of people, but this one had real universal appeal. Also, we find jokes funny for lots of different reasons. They sometimes make us feel superior to others, reduce the emotional impact of anxiety-provoking situations or surprise us because of some kind of incongruity. The hunter’s joke contained all three elements.” 

About LaughLab

In 2001 a team was formed with the British Science Association to carry out ‘LaughLab’ – the scientific search for the world’s funniest joke.

The project website had two sections. In one part, people could input their favourite joke and submit it to an archive. In the second section, people could answer a few simple questions about themselves (such as their age, and nationality), and then rate how funny they found five randomly selected jokes on a five-point scale ranging from ‘not very funny’ to ‘very funny’.

Source: Agencies