The world's funniest joke

I sometimes wonder to myself, is there a joke so funny that it would cause everyone who heard it to die from laughter? The immaculate joke, crafted by the gods themselves. Today that thought came to me again, and this time I queried google. What I found was a project called Laughlab created by Richard Wiseman over ten years ago. He wanted to find the world's funniest joke, and so he compiled, with the help of jokers all over the world, thousands of jokes - forty thousand to be more or less exact. The jokes were then judged on a basic scale of 1 to 5. By the end of the project some 1.5 million ratings were submitted.

So what joke won? I should say, this isn't exactly my idea of the perfect joke, but it received more positive reviews across more different cultures and countries than any other joke. Judge for yourself:

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?”

Not bad, eh?

You can read the full report here: http://richardwiseman.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/ll-final-report.pdf

He also says what the winning jokes were in individual countries, and notes the differences in people's sense of humour. So in Canada and the USA it seems a lot of people prefer jokes that cultivate a sense of superiority; where someone is made to look stupid or silly.

 Texan: Where are you from?
Harvard grad: I come from a place where we do not end our sentences in prepositions.
Texan: Ok, Where are you from, Jackass?


In France, Denmark, and Belgium there is greater appreciation for surreal jokes.


An Alsatian went to a telegram office, took out a blank form and wrote:
"Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof."
The clerk looked at the paper and politely told the dog: "There are only nine words here. You can send another 'Woof' for the same price."
"But", the dog replied, "that would make no sense at all."

 

I have to say, in this regard I am more Belgian than Canadian.