Funny
World’s Funniest Joke Has Been Revealed, According To Scientists
It is subjective until it isn’t.
Jokes are subjective, well at least that’s what people believe until scientists decided to get into it. And be surprised because the research on jokes and humor has begun since at least 20 years ago.
An experiment from LaughLab had taken in 40,000 jokes and over 2 million ratings to find out which one gave people the best kick in the guts. The research was led by psychologist Dr. Richard Wiseman from the University of Hertfordshire.
You probably guessed they would’ve been something from a popular standup comedian, but check out the top ranking’s joke.
‘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?”‘
Did you laugh? Or did you just read that with a deadpan face? Dr. Wiseman explains to The Guardian, “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.”
Another experiment involved scientists shoving people under a brain-scan machine and forcing them to watch Seinfeld.
Yeah, ‘Seinfeld’ and ‘The Simpsons.’ It basically allows them to distinguish the part of the brain that processes jokes which are the left inferior frontal and posterior temporal cortices. Basically, these parts work in identifying contrasts and resolutions.
There were some jokes that strike as funnier to a certain group of people compared to others and they could easily be segmented from their nationalities or culture.
“These results are really interesting. It suggests that people from different parts of the world have fundamentally different senses of humour. Humour is vital to communication and the more we understand how people’s culture and background affect their sense of humour, the more we will be able to communicate effectively,” Dr. Wiseman added.
Oh, they even managed to pinpoint the best time to launch a joke: 6.03 pm on October 7. And the best length is 103 words (the hunter’s joke was 102 words long).
