You may have heard the world’s funniest joke and not even know it. “The world’s funniest joke” you say, “how could you find that out?”
Professor Richard Wiseman did. He was at the Science Gallery for the closing event of their Infectious exhibit and gave a brilliant talk on his study with Laughlab.co.uk, the world famous, year long, project set out to discover what that joke was. They set up a website in September 2001 in conjunction with the British Association for the Advancement of Science to answer important questions about the psychology of humour, such as:
- Do men and women find the same jokes funny?
- Does our sense of humour change as we grow older?
- When is the best time of day to tell a joke?
- Do people from different countries laugh at the same jokes?
His talk on Friday evening was interesting, funny, engaging and worthwhile. Personally I was surprised by how many people didn’t already know some of the jokes (which I’ll tell you later) but I was lucky enough to grab a few minutes with Richard himself to talk more about what he’d been telling the packed theatre, including him telling us the funniest joke in the world. You can see that video here:
The idea behiond this entire experiment was very simple. The LaughLab website contained two sections - one to submit and the other a rating system accompanied by simple questions about the reader - whether they were male or female, young or old, and which country they were from – and then rated how funny they found a random selection of jokes that had been submitted by others using a highly scientific ‘giggleometer’:
Over the course of a year they received over 40,000 jokes and 1.5 million ratings. At the end of the project, they discovered which jokes made men giggle and women groan, those that tickled children but not adults, and the jokes that proved most popular in different countries.
There was also some fascinating results - jokes about ducks are funnier than any other animal, that people found jokes funniest at 6.03 in the evening., and least funny at 1.30 in the morning; that they found them funniest on the 15th of the month, and less funny towards the end or start of the month. Bad news for twitter jokers - statistically, jokes containing 103 words are the funniest.
Interestingly, the one that’s in second place is quite a favourite of mine and there’s loads more over on the Laughlab site:
Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson were going camping. They pitched their tent under the stars and went to sleep. Sometime in the middle of the night Holmes woke Watson up and said: “Watson, look up at the stars, and tell me what you see.”
Watson replied: “I see millions and millions of stars.” Holmes said: “and what do you deduce from that?”
Watson replied: “Well, if there are millions of stars, and if even a few of those have planets, it’s quite likely there are some planets like earth out there. And if there are a few planets like earth out there, there might also be life. Why, Holmes, what does it tell you?”
And Holmes said: “Watson, you idiot, it means that somebody stole our tent.”
You can find out more here, read Richard’s blog here and follow him on twitter here. Tell him a joke. He’ll love that, he will.
I hope you told him a #doylejoke or two.
Great read Darragh, would’ve liked to hear that presentation.
Ronan, I assume you’re reading in a reader and so may not see the video interview with him where he actually goes into a lot of it?
Or maybe you have? *sigh*. You kids and your damn machines.
Great interview Darragh.
My favourite one has always been:
Did you hear about the pervert egg?
He ran down the street with his yolk hanging out…….
lol @ Peter
Sounds like a very interesting guy, great post Darragh. I’m shocked you couldn’t tell the ‘blame it on the boogie’ joke right
Not sure I agree with a ‘science’ for laughter, surely you either fiend something funny or you don’t regardless of what the clock or the calendar says? Still, an interesting one.
Ah Mr. Wiseman. He is a great speaker. His talk was most enjoyable! I’ve been following him on twitter and via his blog for a while. He does a Friday puzzle every week that can seriously bake your noodle.
He first came to public attention due to the Gorilla experiment back in 2004. It’s great to see him back on the public scene due to the laugh lab experiment. He also has various books out, Quirkology and 59 : Seconds (there is a small bit of overlap but overall fun to read if you like pop science
More on the Gorilla experiment here http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/science/sciencenews/3322642/Did-you-see-the-gorilla.html
As for telling him a joke. I already did. At great speed (oh the joys of over-excitement and nerves). I have NO idea if most of the people there could make out a word I said. Should anyone want to know what it was.. the joke was by comedian Eric Lawlor from Des Bishops ‘Joy in the Hood’ who can be seen in dublins comedy clubs (international bar, bankers, etc), check him out and hear it for yourself.
@darragh You’re right, reading on a connection akin to dialup, so can’t watch any videos!