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Scientists crack the great joke mystery
By JOHN von RADOWITZ
LONDON
Friday 21 December 2001
Britain's funniest joke was named yesterday by scientists investigating the psychology of laughter.
A total of 100,000 people were invited both to submit and rate jokes as part of a huge experiment called Laughlab.
From a collection of 10,000, a joke about Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson emerged the winner, with a top rating from 47 per cent of those taking part.
The joke, submitted by Geoff Anandappa, from Blackpool, goes like this: Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson go camping, and pitch their tent under the stars. During the night, Holmes wakes his companion and says: "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 replies: "Watson, you idiot. Somebody stole our tent."
The experiment, devised by Richard Wiseman from the University of Hertfordshire, also identified Britain's worst jokes, and discovered what men, women, and people of different nationalities find funny.
One surprising result was that out of 11 nationalities, Germans rated more jokes "very funny" than anyone else.
Canada was at the bottom of the list, and Britain in seventh place.
Being easily amused is not the same as having a good sense of humour, however. One of the favourite jokes in Germany was: "Why is television called a medium? Because it is neither rare nor well-done."
Two chicken jokes were awarded the lowest ratings by 74 per cent of people taking part.
One was the joke known to every child: "Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the other side."
The other was: "Why are chickens considered good employees? Because they work around the cluck."
Big differences emerged between the jokes most favoured by men and women.
Top male jokes involved aggression, putting women down, and sexual innuendo, said Dr Wiseman.
An example of a male joke was: "A guy walked into a psychiatrist's office wearing only cling-film underpants. The psychiatrist said, 'Well, I can clearly see you're nuts'."
Women, on the other hand, preferred jokes involving word play, such as: "A man walks into a bar with a piece of tarmac under his arm. He says to the barman, 'A pint for me, and one for the road'."
Dr Wiseman said: "These findings reflect fundamental differences in the ways in which males and females use humour. Males use humour to appear superior to others, while women are more linguistically skilled and prefer word- puns."
The experiment also examined whether a suitably programmed computer could be funny. It seems generally not - four of five computer-generated jokes fared very badly.
But one computer pun did quite well, beating more than 300 human jokes with this offering: "What kind of murderer has fibre? A cereal killer."
Laughlab, organised in conjunction with the British Association for the Advancement of Science, is the largest experiment of its kind.
Volunteers were asked to log on to an Internet site where they could rate jokes and add their own.
The study was launched in September at the BA Science Festival in Glasgow and will conclude in September next year.
Other jokes rated as supremely funny in different countries were:
France - "You're a high-priced lawyer! If I give you 500 dollars, will you answer two questions?"
"Absolutely! What's the second question?"
Belgium - "Well, you see, there are basically three kinds of people in the world. Those who can count and those that can't."
Sweden - "A guy phones the local hospital and yells, `You've gotta send help! My wife's in labour!"' The nurse says, `Calm down. Is this her first child?' He replies, `No! This is her husband!"'
Canada: "What do you call a woman who can balance four pints of beer on her head? Beatrix."
And The Age submits the Victorian version: "What do you call a woman who can balance four pots of beer on her head? Beatrix Potter."
- PA
http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/2001/12/21/FFX2ZAPQFVC.h tml
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