Chapter 42 foreword

How does the bizarre international survey reveal the difference between men and women's jokes? What does smiling often have to do with longevity? Why do professional comedians always look so ridiculous? Are weasels really the funniest animals in the world? In the 1970s, the comedy TV show "Monty Python: The Flying Circus" created a skit around finding the world's funniest jokes.Set in the 1940s, a man named Ernest Squibble thought of a joke, wrote it down, and died laughing on the spot.The joke was so ridiculous that everyone who saw it lost his life.Finally, the British military realized that the joke could be used as a deadly weapon, so they got a group of people to translate it into German.In order not to let the translation team be affected by the joke, each person can only translate one of the words at a time.Later they read the joke to the Germans, who laughed so hard that they couldn't continue fighting.The skit ends with a meeting to sign the Geneva Conventions, where delegates vote unanimously to ban the use of jokes in warfare.

In 2001, I moved art into the real world, leading a team that conducted a year-long scientific study to find the funniest jokes in the world.Instead of exploring the possibility of using jokes for military purposes, we wanted to study the jokes from a scientific point of view. In addition to finding the most catchy jokes, my funny research project has spawned a series of surreal experiences involving American humorist Dave Barry, a giant chick costume, Hollywood actor Robin William James, and more than 500 jokes that end with "There's a weasel that keeps biting my privates."

More importantly, the project also sheds light on many of the questions facing contemporary humor researchers Do people in different countries find the same thing funny? Does our sense of humor change over time? If you were to tell a story about Animal jokes, which animal would you make the star of the joke, a duck, a horse, a cow, or a weasel?