Science Vs - The Funniest Joke in the World

Episode Date: May 2, 2024

If you Google "The Funniest Joke in the World," you'll be very disappointed. The internet might serve you something like, "What has many keys but can't open a single lock??” (Answer: A piano). Screw that. That's not funny. Enter Science Vs. We’re going on a romp to find out once and for all: What is the funniest joke in the world. According to science. And for this quest we've interviewed a bunch of amazing comics including Tig Notaro, Adam Conover, Dr Jason Leong, Loni Love, as well as special guest Latif Nasser of Radiolab and, of course, some scientists: Neuroscientist Professor Sophie Scott and Psychologist Professor Richard Wiseman. Which Joke Will Win???    Find our transcript here: https://bit.ly/ScienceVsFunniestJoke In this episode, we cover: (00:00) The Quest Begins (08:40) Why laughing matters (13:13) The scientific search for the world's funniest joke (17:40) Woof, quack or moo? (21:33) The comedy K (26:30) Do different cultures have different senses of humour? (28:27) The winner! (32:15) Scientific theories of humour (lol) (38:28) Why the winning joke isn't funny (40:26) How do you stop a dog from humping your leg?  (44:43) Meet the comedy gods This episode was produced by Wendy Zukerman, with help from Michelle Dang, Joel Werner, Rose Rimler and Meryl Horn. We’re edited by Blythe Terrell. Fact checking by Sarah Baum. Mix and sound design by Bobby Lord. Music written by Peter Leonard, Bumi Hidaka, Emma Munger, So Wylie, and Bobby Lord. Thanks to all the researchers we spoke to including Dr Andrew Farkas, Professor Penny MacDonald, Dr Maggie Prenger and a huge thank you to Professor Chris Westbury for sharing your amazing spreadsheet!! Thanks to all the comedians we interviewed in this episode including Tig Notaro, Adam Conover, Loni Love, Takashi Wakasugi, Urooj Ashfaq, Dr Jason Leong, Penny Greenhalgh and Mohammed Magdi. Another big thanks to Lindsay Farber, Roland Campos, Lauren LoGiudice, Andrea Jones-Rooy and the other comics at Ha! or Nah!: A Joke Lab; and all the comics that we spoke to and couldn't fit into the episode, we really really appreciate you and your time! Thanks to Ben Milam, the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Stupid Old Studios, Paige Ransbury, the Zukerman Family and Joseph Lavelle Wilson. Science Vs is a Spotify Studios Original. Listen for free on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Follow us and tap the bell for episode notifications.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hi, I'm Wendy Zuckerman and you're listening to Science Versus. Today on the show, we're pitting facts against funnies. And by the way, today is our 200th episode of Science Versus. Can you believe it? 200 episodes. That is so many facts versus other things. Thank you so much for listening and for being on this big journey with us. It's been so fun. And so to celebrate our 200th episode, we are going on a ridiculous journey together today. It's a quest. It's like we're going to be heroes on this epic adventure.

And at times, things might get a little rude, a little naughty, just in case there's kids listening. But before we go any further, like all heroes journeys, we're going to need a companion. You know, like Robin to Batman, Samwise Gamgee to Frodo Baggins, Buzz to Woody. And our companion today is a man who has gone on a great many scientific quests. He's traveled the world, put one foot in front of the other.

I give you co-host of Radiolab, Latif Nasser. Hello! Hi, thank you for having me. I'm honored to be the Frodo to your Batman or whatever is me. I'm honored to be the proto to your Batman or whatever is the... I'm honored to be here. So, do you want to know our mission? Yeah.

Okay. We're going to find the funniest joke in the world. Wow. That sounds dangerous. I know, I know. It sounds dangerous. It sounds big. But I'm going to keep it safe But I'm going to keep it safe.

I'm going to keep it safe. And you might be thinking, why? Why are we doing this? So I wanted to tell you the origin story to this hero's journey. Okay. Right. And it doesn't get much bigger than this. So the other day, I was feeling a little bit sad.

I wanted a little pick-me-up. So I went to Google. The world's funniest joke. Right. And you know what I got? What? It was trash. It was absolute trash.

Sure. Like, I'm, you know, did you hear about the rancher who had 97 cows in his field? When he rounded them up, he had 100. Oh, that was not even... That's real bad. Yeah. It's... I kept trying. That's solemn. Like, you could tell that at a funeral.

I was like, this is making me feel worse. So I kept trying different search terms, and then I got crap like this. What has many keys but can't open a single lock? What has many keys but can't open a single lock? A piano. Yeah. I mean, that, to me, that's not a joke. That's like a riddle.

Or like, it makes sense. That's a riddle. It like belongs in Lord of the Rings, right? Like, it's like, that's not... It's not a joke. It's not a joke. It's not even close to a joke. And so I just thought we could do better, you know, using research and rigor.

You and me, we could do better. We could find the best joke in the world. You know, there are other things that could cheer you up. Like, I mean, sugar, antidepressants, a hug. That's true. There's like a lot of other things that you could do. But just not to, I'm not judging your life or anything. No, no.

That's, you think Googling the funniest joke probably wasn't like a long-term solution. Not a long-term solution to your problems. Yeah, that's basically where I'm coming from. But I thought. You thought it was. It couldn't hurt. Okay, so to start us off,

I wanted to know if it was even possible to find the funniest joke in the world. Yes, right. So I asked a bunch of comedians this very question. Okay, great. So here are their answers. So this is what US comedian Ting Notaro... Brilliant comedian.

Yes, said. She was not optimistic. Do you think we can find this joke? Sure. Over and over and over again. Because it's going to be different opinions. Yeah. You know.

Yeah. And Takashi Wakasugi, who's from Japan, agreed with Tig saying, you know, comedy is subjective. People have different opinions. That's why being a comic is so hard. And he said, you know, in many ways, telling a joke, it's like having sex. We wanna make you feel better. We always do our best. Right.

But sometimes we don't know what you want, what you like. Right. And some people make noise if you like it. And some people don't make noise noise even though if they enjoy it. And you can't use the same technique on everyone is the suggestion. Yeah, this is hard. Yeah, it's hard, right?

And then so I asked my very good friend who's an award-winning comic in Australia, Penny Greenhalgh, and I just like really thought I'd get a supportive answer here. Do you think I can do it? No. Penny! I don't know. I reckon you a supportive answer here. Do you think I can do it? No.

Fanny! I don't know. I reckon you'll try your hardest. Let's try again. That was good. We'll get a second take. Okay, so do you think I can do it? Wendy, I'm your friend, and as your friend,

I'm going to be honest with you. Yeah. I don't think you will. With friends like that? Yeah. Latif, I could see your face dropping. Yeah. you know but i i just want you to know that some comics were on team batman and frodo team wendy and latif yeah yeah like here's what malaysian comic dr jason leong said uh-huh okay wow i suppose technically it's possible i suppose technically it's possible. I suppose technically it's possible.

That's a ringing endorsement. He even had a strategy for us. He said, get a few jokes, get a big enough sample size, a voting system going across the world. Thought we could do it. Emmy Award winner, Lonnie Love, in fact, had so much optimism for us that she even gave us our first clue. It's just something simple that people usually laugh at.

And it's right there in front of your face. You know, it's right there. And it's something that everybody can laugh at. It's funny because like to the critique of the premise was this is too complicated, right? Yes. And then this solution for the quest is just go simple. Go simple. Which I think is right.

Yeah, I think that's right. Because even if there's no such thing as the perfect joke, there is somewhere the joke that more of the 8 billion people on planet Earth will laugh at than any other joke. Do you know what I mean? I think so. I think so. I think it, yeah, that's right.

Even if everyone in the world doesn't find it funny, it's still helping lots of people. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Put a smile on their face, you know. Yes, yes, yeah. There must be something. There's got to be. Okay, with this enthusiasm, with this mindset,

our hunt for the funniest joke in the world begins. Yeah. And it's coming up just after this break. It's season three of The Joy of Why, and I still have a lot of questions. Like, what is this thing we call time? Why does altruism exist? And where is Jan 11? I'm here, astrophysicist and co-host, ready for anything.

That's right, I'm bringing in the A-team. So brace yourselves. Get ready to learn. I'm Jan 11. I'm Steve Strogatz. And this is... Quantum Magazine's podcast, The Joy of Why. New episodes drop every other Thursday, starting February 1st.

What does the AI revolution mean for jobs, for getting things done? Who are the people creating this technology, and what do they think? I'm Rana El-Khelyoubi, an AI scientist, entrepreneur, investor, and now host of the new podcast, Pioneers of AI. Think of it as your guide for all things AI with the most human issues at the center. Join me every Wednesday for Pioneers of AI. And don't forget to subscribe wherever you tune in. Welcome back. Today on the show, our biggest challenge yet to find the funniest joke in the world. We're here with Latif Nasser. How are you feeling about our chances at this point? You know, I wouldn't bet for us, but I wouldn't bet against us.

That is very ambiguous. That's great. Do you have a joke to enter into our funniest joke competition? Okay, so this is the thing that my two-year-old said. This is like a few months ago. And it alternately makes me laugh and like kind of like horrifies me okay so one day i was going out he was sitting he was playing like just by the door and i was going out and i was like okay bud like i'm going to take out the garbage

and he goes why don't you take your face? That was it. He like completely roasted me. Like no, nothing, nothing before it. Nothing that, that,

that, like it just came out of nowhere. Why don't you take your face? With the garbage. Cause your face is garbage is what he's saying to me. My son, my own son,

my own flesh and blood. That's pretty good. That's pretty good. because your face is garbage is what he's saying to me. My son, my own son, my own flesh and blood. That's pretty good. That's pretty good. Take your face. Our first entry into the world's funniest joke competition. Okay. But now we have our first scientific guest here, and she is going to set the stakes to tell us how important our quest is,

our quest to find the funniest joke in the world. So meet Sophie Scott. I'm a professor of cognitive neuroscience at University College London. This fancy person, as part of her work, researches laughter. And she told me that there is a gaggle or giggle of research out there that shows why laughing matters. So what's curious is that we, as humans, we're not the only animals to laugh.

Rats do a kind of playful vocalisation. That is, if you tickle them just right. What you need to do to tickle a rat is you need to tickle them on the nape of the neck. That's where they're really ticklish. So just sort of between the shoulder blades. Primates, like chimps, do a laugh. Chimpanzees laugh.

It sounds very like our laughter. It's like a kind of... This is an actual chimp laughing. Isn't her impersonation very good? She did great. Yeah, yeah, that was spot on. But even though there are other creatures out there that do a kind of laugh,

there are things that are very special about our human laughter. And one of them is this. Humans laugh loud. We laugh to be heard. We broadcast our laughter. What a weird, sort of obnoxious thing. Like, for us humans, like, we're the loud laughers of the animal kingdom like what a weird thing like desperately trying to laugh quietly right now but like imagine like on noah's ark

or whatever it's like we're the ones laughing and everyone else was like oh god like we get it like you're having fun we're all having fun fun, just going... That's right, right. We're just doing it breathy and over here and to ourselves, and you just, like, really are rubbing it in. Yes, yes. But that is, I mean, that is exactly what we think the evolutionary purpose of this is, is to, like, show that we are laughing

and possibly to get others laughing too, to bring joy, because we're the only animals, as far as science knows, that have contagious laughter. So if I start laughing, you're more likely to start laughing. We're way more likely to laugh when other people are around versus when we're alone. Right.

And Sophie has found that when it comes to jokes, the power of laughter is so strong that it can turn a terrible joke into a funnier joke. So she actually did this study where she got some jokes. We took real stinkers like, what's the best day for cooking? Friday!

Yeah. So she got these terrible, these stinkers, as she puts it, these terrible jokes, and she found that just by adding a laugh, people would rate these stinkers as funnier. Huh. And for Sophie, this like all shows that laughter is playing this like really important role in connecting people. So there really is something very basic about the ability of laughter to perhaps to jump the gaps between humans. Latif, if we could find a joke to get the whole world laughing, I mean, we'd be Nobel Prize winners,

or at least like Ig Nobel Prize winners. Yes. Okay, not to throw a monkey wrench in here to your... But so it's true. Laughter is this thing that, you know, it's like you laugh and the whole world laughs with you and da-da-da-da. Yes.

But laughter is also... can be savage. So there's laughing with and there's laughing at is the other thing. Because it's like, who's the butt of the joke and how? So it's like, so we're playing with some high, like high stakes here. Because we could also, we could bring the whole world together. But we could aim collectively ridicule and humiliation we could divide but that i i feel like to get the funniest joke in the world because yes and studies have indeed found

that surprise surprise if you if you make uh ethnic and racist jokes if you are of that group being ridiculed or if you even just care about the group being ridiculed you find the joke less funny um there was a a study that was done if on uh on blasphemous jokes that practicing christians found them less funny than atheists even though generally they had very similar sense of humor so i feel like because of this if we're going to find the funniest joke in the world it cannot be it cannot be othering. We cannot be picking. Because we're really, we need to maximize the amount of people

that we are bringing joy to. Yeah. Yeah. No, but I agree. Okay. So, with that in mind, with the stakes truly set for this quest.

Yeah. Yep. Now we've just got to find this joke. Okay. But where to start? Where to start? I kept pottering around

on the internets even though that did not give me the funniest joke. But it did bring me to this fella, Richard Wiseman, a professor of psychology at the university at Hertford Shire in the UK. Notoriously funny university. It's very well known. And it's Shire, Shire for our quest.

Oh, that's right. Okay, great. Okay, I'm in, I'm in. So in the early 2000s, Richard was asked to come up with this big science public project. It was for a fancy British science association, and he cannot think of anything. But as he's walking through the doors of the meeting, this idea just popped into my head, which was the search for the world's funniest joke.

Twinsies! Twinsies. And that was my pitch. I simply sat down and said, we're going to search for the world's funniest joke. And they went, that's a great idea. Let's do that. Which I didn't expect them to say, to be honest. This is, well, this is quite funny because...

So I explained our situation. Our situation, of course. I pitched my editor that we're going to find the world's funniest joke. And I didn't know how to do this. I mean, now all we have, I guess, is some like crappy joke about pianos and keys. You know, but that's not funny. No, that's not the funniest joke in the world. Wouldn't it be sad if that was the funniest joke in the world?

If everyone went, oh my God, it's the piano joke. We love that. Exactly. So exactly. Well, the experience that you had pitching to your editor was the one the piano joke. We love that. Exactly. So exactly. Well, the experience that you had pitching to your editor was the one that I had all those years ago. So I go back to the team at the University of Hertfordshire. I say, we're going to find the world's funniest joke.

And they went, great. How are we going to do that? And I said, I've got no idea. I didn't get that far in the pitch. We've got nothing, basically. Okay, very relatable. I like this guy a lot, although I have no idea what he's going to do next.

Okay, well, then they come up with a plan, a radical plan. Okay. Radical for the 2000s. We decided people would come onto the internet, the newly formed internet. They would type in their favorite joke and submit it. And they would rate the joke submitted by others. Aha. And nowadays you go, well, of course you

could do that. You could do it with people all over the world. But back then there wasn't a way of collecting data via the web. Right. So Richard's team actually has to develop a website from scratch that could do all this, where people could come online, submit jokes, or they'd be given different jokes and then they would rate how funny they are. So they get this website done. Now, they just need to get some publicity because this whole experiment is hinging on lots of people going onto the website like a big enough sample size to submit jokes and rate them. But it turns out getting publicity was not a problem because once news outlets around the world found out about this competition, they lapped it up.

And it goes viral. It goes all over the world that scientists are searching for the world's funniest joke. What makes one person laugh could make the next person cringe. The search is now on to find the world's funniest joke. There was a lot of pressure. There was a lot of pressure. Mike Ennis is going to find the world's funniest joke. And so the hunt begins. And so people rated the jokes on a giggle-o-meter? Yeah, we refer to it as a giggle-o-meter.

A giggle-o-meter. Giggle-o-meter. Giggle-o-meter. And it was very scientific. It had five ratings on it from not very funny, which would be the piano joke would be not very funny, through to moderately funny, and then on to absolutely hilarious.

Okay, so the ranking is one to five. Okay. Totally working. People are coming onto the site in droves. Great. In fact, very early on, people start putting dirty jokes onto the website, of course. But then Richard's like...

And he has to be okay with that. No, he's not? No. So in this experiment, they actually removed the dirty jokes because this was a big family experiment, unlike Science Versus. Okay. Oh, got it. So you're doing all the way, all the jokes.

We could do all... Yeah, but Richard removes the rude jokes. Okay. But then as the competition is trucking along, one day Richard checks in with the team and he sees this joke that would send him and now us on a rather interesting path. Almost like the endless stairs to cross into Mordor.

Okay. Okay, so here's the joke. Two cows in a field. One turns to the into Mordor. Okay. Okay, so here's the joke. Two cows in a field. One turns to the other and says, Moo. And the other one says, I was going to say that. Not bad.

Not bad. Old, old joke. Not bad. Old joke. That's probably a two or a three on the gigalometer. Yeah, yeah, I would agree that's a two or a three. So clearly that's not going to be the winner of either Richard's competition or ours.

But it did make Richard think, wait a sec, could we do an experiment within an experiment? So Richard wonders, like, what if we tried out different versions of this cow joke by switching up the animals? And could this tell us something deeper about why one joke is funny and one joke isn't? Oh, yeah. So you could have two lions, one turns to the other and roars, and the other says, I was going to say that. Less funny, that's less funny. Interesting, interesting.

Okay, so other ones, they tried two birds going cheep cheep, two ducks, one says quack, then there's two dogs. I was going to say that. No, that's not funny. No, maybe that's funny. Maybe that's funny, but not because of the noise, but because dogs are so relatable. Okay. So, Richard puts a bunch of these jokes into the database.

When people come on, they might be randomly given one of those jokes. So, which do you think is the funniest? Quack, quack. Yes. It was? That was the winner. Damn. Okay.

Two ducks. One says quack, and the other one says I was going to say that. So the big question is why is duck quacking so funny? Okay. And why? And it turned out that ducks and quack are funny words. Yeah. And so what is it about duck and quack?

Why are they funny? And the answer lies in this fabulously named paper, Wrigley, Squiffy, Lummox and Boobs, What Makes Some Words Funny? Nice. And here's what they did. They used this survey data where hundreds of people had been asked

to rate the funniness of thousands of English words. And they used basically the equivalent of the giggle-o-meter. So you want to play? Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. Juju? to play? Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. Juju? Juju is funny.

Yeah. Juju. Chauffeur? Chauffeur. Chauffeur. Not funny. Orgy? Orgy.

Not funny. Holder? Holder? Holder. Not funny. Holder is the least funny word you've said I don't know why that makes me laugh so much It's such a dumb thing to ask

No, because holder is so functional Yeah, yeah, it is And you know, you basically picked the right order So of the words I gave you Juju was ranked as the the highest the funniest word then orgy which in this study it was actually considered pretty funny chauffeur came after that and holder not funny at all yeah okay yeah so the researchers then poured over this data set to create an algorithm for funny words that they then applied to more than 45,000 English words.

And I actually have the Excel spreadsheet right here if you want to throw out any words. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. I'm almost more curious, what are the words at the very bottom of the list? Okay, very interestingly, the least funny word, according to this study, is harassment.

Harassment. That makes me want to make a joke where the punchline is, harassment. I know, right? So the researchers really swam in that data to try and see patents as to what is funny and what is not. And one thing that really came up is that certain sounds are funny, like K. Anything with a hard K.

So clown and duck and quack. Duck and quack, both of them have a K. Right. And it's funny because this comedy K, so there's an episode of The Simpsons about it, like comedians know about this. There's a 30 Rock has a joke about it. Oh, really?

Last year, Jenna accused me of trying to destroy her because her lines didn't have any K sounds, which she thinks is the funniest sound. Oh, my God. My cousin Carl crashed his car, and now he's in a coma at the Kendall Clinic. That's good. Now, as far as I could tell,

no one has repeated this experiment in a non-English language. And because we're looking for the funniest joke in the world, I wanted to ask comics about this in other languages. So we're kind of stuck with anecdotes, unfortunately. But I asked Egyptian comic Mohamed Magdi what is a funny word in Arabic.

And this is what he said. I think the word for shell, like the shell that you find on the beach is quite funny. It's called kauka. Kauka? Yeah, yeah. Two Ks. Yeah, two Ks. There you go.

Actually, you're right. Oh, my God. Science does work. What? I love that that's the thing. It's like he was like, oh, vaccines? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I guess.

I guess maybe. But like, it's like, oh, but this K thing. Like, oh, we're really onto something here. So other sounds in English that are funny. Yeah. Ooh. Ooh sounds. So like booby, whoop, as well as words ending in Y and le, so like giggle and waddle are also funny. As a general rule, letters and sounds that aren't very common tend to rate as funnier. So curt sound is pretty rare. And also like if you have this like weird collection of sounds in a word, that tends to be funny. So I

talked about this with comedian Tig Notaro. So we were talking about funny words and she said a co-host on her podcast, Handsome, said this one day. Bulbous frog. And I couldn't move on. I said, I'm sorry, we have to go back. What do you mean a bulbous frog? Also, the delivery of this word, it kept like, yes, and the bulbous frog, and it was so bulbous. And I was like, stop saying that word. It made me sick to my stomach, but I also recognized it as a that word. Like, it made me sick to my stomach, but I also recognized it as a funny word. Yes, and according to the Wrigley Squiffy paper, bulbous does rank pretty high. Oh, right.

Huh, yeah. So, I kept looking for clues in other languages as to what words might be funny. So smart. So smart. So, I talked to Indian comic, Ruj Ashfaq, about this. She won the Best Newcomer

at Edinburgh last year. She speaks Hindi. She's performed all over India. And she told me that there are a few words that often get a laugh. There's this word called chinchpokli.

Which is, yeah. That's very funny. It's really funny. It's a chinchpokli. It's a place. It's a place. Chinchpokli. Chinchpokli.

And every time someone says it. It does have a K, right? Chinchpokli. Yes, you're right It's a place. Chinchpokli. Chinchpokli. And every time someone says it. It does have a K, right? Chinchpokli. Yes, you're right. But that's not why it's funny, right? I don't. Maybe it's the chinch. Yes.

It's so thin. And then the pokli is so wide. And you're like, why did you put that together? Chinchpokli. Chinchpokli. Chinchpokli. Chinchpokli, right? Oh, so good.

Satisfying. It's a neighborhood in Mumbai. Now, what makes words funny isn't just their sounds. It's also their meanings. So in English, the study found that rude words, words about body parts and bodily functions, insult words also rate as funny. Right.

So this thing with insulting words being funny, it seems to track in India too. So U thing with insulting words being funny, it seems to track in India too. So Urooj told me about one more. Okay. And we're about to get a little bit rude here.

Great. Is oo funny in India? Oo is funny. I think oo is funny. Goo. Oh my god, the word goo is so funny.

And goo basically means shit. And so eat shit in Hindi is goo funny. And goo basically means shit. And so the eat shit in Hindi is gukha. Gukha. And that usually gets a laugh. So after the break, we're going to hear the winner of Richard's experiment. And will we find the funniest joke in the world?

Who knows? Who knows? Could go either way. Could go either way here. We're back on our grand quest to find the funniest joke in the world. I'm your dungeon master and my paladin is Latif Nasser.

Hello. Hi. So as we're on this journey for the funniest joke in the world, one potential hiccup in our plan is if different countries and cultures have vastly different senses of humor. And this is something you hear talked about. Like even when I was living in New York, people would like to talk about how Australians have such

a different sense of humor to Americans. And so I looked into the research on this. Right. And one big study published a few years ago that had done surveys on 28 countries, you know, thousands and thousands of people. And they did find like people from Indonesia and Japan tended to use self-disparaging humor, so making fun of themselves, while Russia and Estonia scored high on aggressive humor that might involve belittling or teasing others. So there are some differences.

But the thing is, for all these like gulfs that scientific papers like to highlight, the research paper ultimately concluded that there are, quote, more similarities than differences across the countries. Yeah. Yeah, I believe that. I believe that. Yeah, I think that's right. Yeah, yeah. And some of the comedians that I spoke to about, you know, finding the funniest joke in the world said that as long as we make sure our joke isn't,

it doesn't have like very specific cultural references in it, like talking about the politics of a specific country or town or whatever. Yeah. As long as we stick to universal themes, sex, bodily fluids, family dynamics, like we're going to up our chances of finding this joke. Which is why bodies are so...

Yeah, bodies work. Bodies, animals. Yeah, I like that. I like that. So now, let's fast forward to the end of Richard Wiseman's experiment. A year has passed. He's gotten 40,000 jokes, hundreds of thousands of ratings from 70 countries. And Richard told me that by the end of the experiment, 40,000 jokes, hundreds of thousands of ratings from 70 countries.

And Richard told me that by the end of the experiment, it was really clear that this competition was over. You could see the same jokes coming in again and again. If I read, what's brown and sticky? A stick. Oh, yeah. If I read that one more time, every morning, three or four people would put that in. How was it?

Did it rate well? No. No, no, no. It was always down there with pianos. It never did well. And funnily enough, 20 years later, we did a call out on social media. And this brown and sticky joke came up over and over again. Okay. So, Latif, are you ready to hear the winner of Richard's competition? Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

Do you want to do a little drum roll, by the way? Oh, sure. Bing! There are two hunters out in the woods. One of them collapses. He doesn't seem to be breathing. His eyes are glazed. His friend whips out his phone, calls the emergency services.

He says, my friend is dead. What can I do? The operator says, calm down. I can help. First, let's make certain he's dead. There's a silence, then a gunshot, and then the guy's back on the phone. He says, okay, now what? That was good. That was good.

That was good. I liked it. So I told it to a bunch of our comedians. Okay. Two rather mixed reviews. Okay, okay, okay. Let's hear it. That's a great joke.

It's just dumb. Yeah. That's the winner joke. It's just dumb. Yeah. That's the winner? Really? Really? If you had to like A plus funniest joke in the world, F bad joke, what are you rating it? I will give it a passing grade. It passes as a joke.

Wow. It passes as a joke. Like that's where it gets. You were aware. It's a joke. It's a joke. Well done. But try harder. You know what I mean?

That last harsh critique is comedian Jason Leong. I was on his side. So when Richard first told me this Hunter joke, this was my reaction. What? How is that the funniest joke in the world? Oh, wow. What did you...

You didn't mind it. You don't mind it. I didn't mind it. I mean, maybe I'm a cheap laugh. It's kind of wholesome, even though it's about murder. It's like a wholesome murder joke, you know? It's funny. I asked Richard what he thought about it.

How did you feel when your colleagues came to you and were like, this is the winner, and you read that? What went through your mind? Horror, because I knew I would have to go on radio and television and tell that joke as the world's funniest joke. And I knew it wasn't funny. And it was just, we must have done 50 interviews when that came out.

And each time you sort of grind through, it's a long joke as well, it's not a short joke. You grind through this joke knowing it's not funny, having just told everyone that they found the world's funniest joke. It was living hell. After a while, I just refused to tell it. But what's funny is that, like, even though it didn't make me laugh and Richard doesn't really like it,

like, when you look at the scientific theories of humour, this Hunter joke actually ticks a lot of boxes. OK, so let's take a look at these scientific theories of humour. OK, great. One of the biggest theories of humour is that you need a surprise. So perhaps something incongruous. So here's comedian Lonnie Love on this. It's something that you didn't expect.

That's what makes you laugh because your mind is thinking one way and you go a whole other corner or avenue. That is what makes people laugh. And that's the science of the joke. So Richard gave me an example of this, which I actually quite like as a joke. Okay. Two fish in a tank.

One turns to the other and says, do you know how to drive this? Love it. Love it. So we have fish in a tank. We think it's a fish tank. And then we find out they're in an army tank. That's incongruous. It surprises us.

We laugh. So one paper called this conceptual bifurcation, which is that moment where you realize that something that you thought belonged to just one category, a tank is something that only a fish would hang out in, actually belongs to two categories, an army tank too. And so the hunter joke obviously has this as well. something that only a fish would hang out in, actually belongs to two categories, an army tank too. Ha ha. And so the hunter joke obviously has this as well.

The moment you realize, first, let's make certain he's dead, actually has two meanings. And then it's a funny surprise. Right. That was a funny joke. Yeah. Also conceptual bifurcation.

I feel like both of those words would rank very low on your spreadsheet. That's like a very unfunny, that's like the unfunniest phrase you could find to describe a joke. Yeah, it's like barely above harassment. Right, yeah, yeah, completely. Studies have actually put people into brain scanners and presented them with jokes and found that certain areas associated with language get really, really excited when we hear these kinds of jokes,

which makes a lot of sense because there's a lot of brain work involved in putting these two concepts together for that beautiful aha moment. Right, right. Adam Conover of, most famously, Adam Ruins Everything. So great. He's also a stand-up. And he says that the surprise can come in different forms. So it doesn't have to be that you were expecting a joke to go in one direction

and then it goes somewhere else. It could be that someone explains something in a way that you never thought of before. My own personal theory that I use to write jokes is that something is funny when a truth is combined with a surprise, when people have a shock of recognition that they did not expect. So, you know, the very classic joke is, you know, a piece of observational comedy. You know, have you ever noticed that airplane food is X, whatever it is, right? And if you have, in fact, noticed that, but no one has ever said that to you before, then

you will likely laugh, right? But surprise can't explain everything about comedy because things can be surprising and not funny at all. And on the flip side, researchers found that even when there is no surprise, like in some studies, people have been told a joke before. Or even if they're asked, like, can you predict the punchline of this joke? People still find it funny and sometimes even funnier. And I told Tig Notaro the Hunter joke, it was kind of funny because this was her reaction. Saw it coming.

Still found it amusing. Oh, yeah. So if there's more to a zinger than surprise, what else have we got? Superiority theory. So here's Richard on that. A laugh is a kind of cry of superiority. You made somebody else look silly or put them down

and that you're going, yes, I'm better than them. That's so depressing, actually. That's like a very depressing... It is a very depressing form. And it does explain some jokes because like in so many cultures, there are these jokes about what some researchers call like the full towns. Yeah. So, or full places.

Like so in Australia, if you start a joke with like two Tasmanians walking to a bar. Got it. In Canada, it's Newfoundlanders. Yeah, right. So in the UK, maybe they make fun of the Irish. In Ireland, it's Newfoundlanders. Yeah, right. So in the UK, maybe they make fun of the Irish. In Ireland, maybe they make fun of the Kerrymen.

In France, the Belgians. Right. And it goes beyond time. So I was reading about this paper that said in ancient Greece, it was Abdera, the town of Abdera, you know. Of course.

The two Abderans. Abdera. To walk into a bar. Yeah, sure. And when it comes to the hunter joke, you could argue we feel superior to the stupid hunter. It just does make us feel so petty. Like we're just like so petty and insecure.

Like we need something to feel bigger than. Yeah. I really don't think that's why I'm laughing at a lot of jokes. And it has been criticized a little bit recently. I mean, I'm not saying I'm not petty and insecure. But I like to think there's more to it than that. I think so too. So then this last scientific theory of humor I want to walk through just quickly

is that a lot of humor is triggered by these potentially threatening or bad situations. And then we laugh to release tension. So the hunter joke ticks that off. Yeah, it's like, oh, there's a little bubble of tension here. Pop it. Like, okay, great. We're good. We're good, right?

Yes. And even though there's not a lot of studies testing this theory of humor, Richard said that just from reading like thousands of jokes in his experiment, it seemed to sort of be at the heart of why a lot of them were funny. It's not chance that a lot of jokes involve people experiencing stuff that makes us worried. Yeah. Right. And then as like, as an interesting tidbit, more recently, researchers have kind of added to this saying that you can't just have tension or what they call a violation. They say you ultimately need to feel safe. So the violation in a joke has to be benign.

It's called the benign violation theory. And if you think of like a classic funniest home video show where someone falls on their face, that's like a violation. It's a bit dangerous. But then it's safe. Like the person got up, was fine, and like for some reason sent their snafu

to like a 90s TV channel. But if they didn't get up, and they just, like, were dead. Yeah, right. That's not funny. We're not laughing at that anymore. So to go back to, like, the Hunter joke, just for a second. Right. Even though it ticks these scientific boxes,

like we talked about, it's not funny. And so I thought, or to me, I don't know. It can't be the funniest. It can't be the funniest. It's not the funniest. It's not the funniest. It's not the funniest. And so I asked Richard, like, his experiment, you know, he did the right thing.

They got the sample size. They asked people, you know, many countries around the world, like, so what went wrong? And here's what he said. It was the joke that most people didn't hate. So you can look at any one group. You can look at men or women or young or old or Canadians, and there's always a joke that they thought was much, much funnier.

But when you pulled the data, you got the average, and that's the average. It's the average joke. It's the kind of like, yes, right? No, I think what I've learned from talking to you. Nothing. You've learned nothing. Nothing.

Is that, yeah, where you went wrong was asking thousands and thousands of people for their opinion. Where we went wrong was starting. That was a little downhill from there. Okay. So Richard has completely lost hope in our quest in finding the funniest joke in the world. Yeah, I feel like there was three of us

and now there's just two of us. He just turned and left. But I say there is hope. I say there is hope. I think it was this getting this median democratic voting system going. I think that's where he went wrong. And so I think if we,

instead of going to the voting polls, we go granular. We use the techniques that we've learned today, the funny words, the sounds, the different theories of humor. So I have scoured joke books and listicles and social media and I've gone to comedy sets,

hours of comedy and hunting for jokes that might fit the bill. You've done a lot of research here, Wendy. I'm very impressed. So two jokes in my search. I thought, do tip a lot of these boxes, and I did actually find funny. Okay.

Okay, so, last tip. Could this be the winner to our competition? Could this be the funniest joke in the world? Okay. All right. So, how do you stop a dog from humping your leg i don't know how pick him up and suck his cock that was that was good because it was uh it was that was yeah that was not where i expected you were gonna go but i it was funny it's got the comment that's got the k the comedy that's the

suck and cock The rude words Suck cock Yeah that's right Incongruity Surprise Bit of tension It did pretty good with the comics It beat out

The hunter joke That's for sure Really? Pick him up and suck his cock I say I'm so sorry No that's funny See that's funny to me

And I feel bad now I think It's more relatable. Go on. I think dogs humping is a problem. Don't you think? It's just impolite. People are desperate for a solution. I. People are desperate for a solution.

I think they are desperate for a solution. And so you do, you rack your brains. As soon as someone says, how do you stop a dog from humping your leg? And then they go to pick him up and suck his cock. That's crazy, you know. When that image lands, it's like, whoa. Brilliant. Yeah, that was very funny oh my god

ah oh i love it it's disgusting it's a dog leave it alone but it's so funny because i think it has something to do with you saying it. Because I know you would never. I just. Thank you. I love that's the vibe I give that I won't suck off a dog. Never. Do you think would it translate around the world? Would it translate in India?

Oh, my God. They would love it. Oh, my God. Would they love this joke? In the right hands, this joke would be viral. That's a billion people right there. Right? So maybe science is getting us close.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. But I thought, like, you didn't love it. You didn't love it. But I'm a polite Canadian. I grew up in a quite religious household. Sex jokes are very like, like I'm like,

oh, okay, yeah, like that was funny. So let's take it down a notch. Like I think, I don't think the funniest joke, also, you know, there's kids listening. Probably not anymore.

That's right. But there were kids listening. Right. All right. So I've got another joke for you. Okay. Which I've adapted a little for our purposes. I think you'll see. Right. Alright, so I've got another joke for you. Which I've adapted a little for our purposes. I think you'll see.

Okay. In this neighborhood in Mumbai called Chinchapokli, two monkeys were having a bath. One monkey says, and the other says, we'll put the cold tap on then.

That one was not funny. I don't know why. Because it had Chinchipokli in it and everything. Monkeys, monkeys have a K. That's funny. Monkeys. There was a conceptual bifurcation. There was a conceptual bifurcation.

Yeah, I don't know why it didn't it didn't it didn't land interesting okay so this is what the comics thought of the

monkey joke and the other says we'll put the cold tap on then that's good that's good I think it's better

than the joke yeah that's wholesome's better than the joke that's wholesome I like this one I really like this one is it better? yeah I like it better it's so funny yeah

wow I'm sorry that one yeah that didn't hit for me it's here at the like final stage of our quest. Right. And was that your... So that was your touchdown dance?

Well, I don't know. I mean, I feel like we're weary, our clothes are torn, shoes worn through the soles. And it's here where we've lost all hope, perhaps, that our journey takes a different path. Yeah. Here in Chinchpokli, we're going to cognitively bifurcate ads.

That's right. The sun is rising and we squint at the bright light as Urooj appears. So Urooj used to study psychology before her comedy career took off. And when she first started doing stand-up, she actually read about all these theories of humor. The incongruity, surprise, misdirection. You like looked into the psychology of it. You tried to study this like a science?

Exactly. And then at some point I was like, none of it is real. It's the comedy gods. Really? It's the comedy gods. I'm sorry. I know I'm on a science podcast, but I strongly believe's the comedy gods really it's the comedy gods uh i'm sorry i know i'm on a science podcast but i strongly believe in the comedy gods just i'm i was an atheist and a scientist and

i'm a believer now because i just went on so many stages it's all across india i performed in cafes i performed in bars i performed for corporate shows. I did birthday parties. I did baby showers. I did comedy clubs. And I was like, there is a force. There is a superior force. And there is a moment and magic happens. And I'm so sorry to defy.

I'm so sorry to defy this entire podcast purpose. Yeah. And so, Latif, I abandoned science too. I went to the comedy gods. Okay. And I asked them, what can I do? I've got this episode called The Funniest Joke in the World. What can I do?

Yeah. And they told me to fulfill our quest, if we can each find our own favorite joke to put a smile on our faces when we're feeling down. A joke so that we don't ever have to use Google and find some crappy joke about pianos and keys. And maybe like the audience listening, maybe we've already found yours. Maybe it's the dog humping joke or the monkey or the fish in the tank. So, Lassif, have I found yours? I don't know.

I got a couple more for you. Great, keep going. Just a couple more. Okay, great. Professor Richard Wiseman. What was his favorite joke? Yes. Yeah, yes.

Okay, this was it. Desperate to hear that. The elephant and the mouse. And the elephant says to the mouse, why am I so big and strong and you're so weak and puny? And the mouse looks up and says, well, I've been ill, haven't I? That's good.

I always like that joke. It always kind of makes me smile. That's good. Just finally, just finally. Yeah. Takashi Wakasugi, who was one of the most critical that we could find the funniest joke in the world, towards the end of our chat gave me this gem.

And what made him think of it was he was really puzzling over something that could make everyone laugh. It's going to be a fart. It's going to be a fart. That's the, you know. Yes. And what kind of fart? Like a big, like.

Any fart. Or like a. I have one. Fart joke. Yeah, okay. Hit me with it. I was watching a movie by myself. I laid on the couch, relaxed, and I did fart.

That was a bad fart. I mean, wetty fart. A wet one. Actually, I shit myself. And life is very tough. Life is not easy. And I said, I have to throw away my underwear. I have to take a shower.

I hate myself. And I went to the bathroom to try to take all my clothing. And I saw my underwear was clean. I shit myself a little bit. But my underwear is clean. And that time, first time in my life, I discovered, like, why our human butt shaped like this. Like a W in alphabet. There's a small space. I'm this. Like a W in alphabet. There's a small space.

I'm crying. I'm laughing so hard. I call it hope. That small space is going to save you and your underwear from shitting yourself. Next time

if you shit yourself please don't give up because there is always hope there. And it's very heartwarming. Alright, so Latif, of all of the jokes

that you've heard today have we found your favourite? I'm very happy with Take Your Face. I still think that one is pretty good. I'm going to take out the garbage. Take Your Face.

The answer was hiding within us all along. We found your joke. We fulfilled our quest. What about you? What's your funniest joke? The hope. I mean, I don't know.

Hope is great. Hope is great. That was great. I've definitely found a lot of jokes to put a smile on my face that are not about a piano. Yeah. Like if someone were to say, had any good jokes? Yeah.

I'd be like, there's this area in your butt. Like if someone were to say, had any good jokes? Yeah. I'd be like, there's this area in your butt. In your butt talk. I would use butt talk because there's a K in it. Yes. And it's called hope. And it's called hope.

Yeah. Thank you very much. Thank you. For coming on the show. Thank i feel lighter i feel uh yeah i feel i feel great and i and now i mean the kind of news you can use of this is like i know what to do next time a dog is humping my leg um This episode had 58 citations in it, and if you want to see them in all of their glory, then head to the show notes and click on a link to the transcript. Also, this week, you've got to check out our Instagram and my TikTok because the team has made these awesome little videos of the comics

that you heard from and it's just so funny. So if you want to go see little snippets of the comedians telling jokes, head to our Instagram, which is science underscore VS, and my TikTok is at Wendy Zuckerman. Also, next Tuesday, we're putting a little special episode down the feed, which is my full interview with US comedian Tig Notaro. There was just so many laughs and so much insight into comedy that she gave us that we couldn't fit into this episode. So we thought we'd just share the whole interview with you.

So that'll go down the feed on Tuesday. This episode was produced by me, Wendy Zuckerman, with help from Michelle Dang, Joel Werner, Rose Rimler and Meryl Horne. We're edited by Blythe Terrell. Fact-checking by Sarah Bourne. Mix and sound design by Bobby Lord. Music written by Peter Leonard, Bumi Hidaka, Emma Munger, So Wiley and Bobby Lord. A huge thanks to all, Bumi Hidaka, Emma Munger, So Wiley and Bobby Lord.

A huge thanks to all of the researchers that we spoke to, including Dr. Andrew Farkas, Professor Penny McDonald, Dr. Maggie Pranger, and a huge thank you to Professor Chris Westbury for sharing your amazing spreadsheet of the funniest words. Another big thanks to Lindsay Farber, Roland Kervos, Lauren Lodu-Duches, Andrea Jones-Roy, and the other comics that we spoke to at the Joke Lab, and in fact, all of the comics that we spoke to and couldn't fit into this episode. We really, really appreciate you and your time. Thanks to Ben Milam, the Melbourne International Comedy Festival,

Stupid Old Studios, Paige Ransbury, the Zuckerman family, and Joseph Lavelle-Wilson. Science Versus is a Spotify Studios original. Listen to us for free on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Wendy Zuckerman. I'll back to you next time.