The Funniest Joke in the World

Tackhead writes: "In another example of life imitating Monty Python, this article on nature.com says that the British Association for the Advancement of Science has created Laugh Lab, a project designed to find the funniest joke in the world. Weaponization possibilities are not discussed. Yet."

Comments

Of course,

[The Good Reverend]

Without a doubt, the joke is British and Americans won't get it.

Re:Of course,

[Rimbo]

Two countries separated by a common tongue.

There were two peanuts walking down the road.

[PlazMatiC]

And one of them was assaulted.

Peanut.

Re:doesn't it vary from person to person

[quintessent]

Yes. And if you read the site, that's what it's all about. They want to see which jokes affect the most people. In addition, they will divide people by age, gender, etc. to see which types of jokes the groups tend to like. The "funniest joke in the nation [not world, as Slashdot would have you believe]" stuff is just sort of a gimmick they're tacking on to get people's attention.

Rudolph in Moscow

[citizenc]

An elderly couple were walking about the streets of their home, Moscow. They each feel drops of moisture on their faces. The man says that it is snowing, but his wife is convinced that it's raining. Finally, they see General Rudolph walking by, and the woman calls him over to settle the dispute. The general says it's definitely rain. The man doesn't believe him. Sighing, his wife tells him, "Rudolph the Red knows rain, dear."

Here's one!

[robinjo]

A farmer had a problem. His rooster was growing old and didn't do his responsibilities as well as in his young days. So the farmer went and bought a new rooster to fill in.

The new rooster went all cocky to the old one and said: "Ok old timer. I'm the man in this house, so you'd better get your feathers out of here."

The old one didn't feel like giving up that easily so he challenged the new rooster for a race: "Let's run 20 laps around the henhouse. The faster wins and the loser leaves."

As the new rooster was confident of his speed, the two went outside and a hen gave them the start signal.

The old rooster sprinted and got ahead with the new rooster tightly after him.

The old rooster was leading after 1st lap.

The old rooster was still ahead after the 2nd lap.

On the 3rd lap there was a loud BANG and the new rooster flew against the henhouse wall in a big clowd of feathers. The farmer lowered his shotgun and muttered: "That'll be the last gay rooster in this house."

I worked on this project.

[wirefarm]

My last project was to help design the database of all the jokes.
It was quite a project and actually quite enlightening. It's amazing to hear all the jokes you once heard that made fun of people from Arkansas, being retold about people from Newfoundland or wherever.
Once we got the data consolidated, we were able categorize them and set a primary key for each joke. This was particularly effective because the jokes could be then referred to (and even enjoyed) merely by referring to the primary key. (And any variant information.)

For example, "6653 - Newfie" would take the base text,
6653 - "Why did the $Disparaged_ethnic_groupmember put tinfoil on his nose?"
and insert the variant information.

After work, we'd head to the pub and hoist a few pints, retelling our favorites, only needing to use the number.
"37684!" someone would shout and the rest of the group would laugh.
"238!" and people would be rolling on the floor...
One night, Dr. Wiseman stands up and says "6245!"
Dead silence. Thinking, he again tries. "6245?"
Again, dead silence.
Dejected, he sat down and stared into his Guinness and mutters: "I never *could* tell a joke..."

;-)

(Sorry, I couldn't resist. )
Jim