A global search has begun for the world鈥檚 funniest joke but the first gags in the internet database, such as 鈥淲hat kind of murderer has fibre? A cereal killer鈥� suggest there is a long way to go.
The first jokes have been provided by a computer algorithm and a group of scientists 鈥� neither renowned for their sense of humour. However, anyone visiting the site can enter a joke to be rated by subsequent surfers.
Richard Wiseman, a psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire, hopes not only to discover the most potent side-splitter on the planet, but also to learn something about the psychology of humour.
Advertisement
People rating the funniness of jokes will be asked to give their age, sex and nationality and to complete a 鈥渃ognitive estimation task鈥�. This will give insight into which jokes women find hilarious, but men do not, for example.
鈥淭his is a bottom-up approach,鈥� says Wiseman. Usually psychologists form a hypothesis and then test it in a controlled experiment. But though mass participation experiments have little control, 鈥渢hey can lead you to hypotheses you would never have thought of鈥�, he says. These could then be tested in the lab.
鈥淯sing the internet to get mass data at a simplistic level is becoming a popular tool,鈥� says Mike Lowis, a psychologist at University College Northampton. 鈥淎s long as you are aware of the drawbacks, it can be useful, as you can get a high number of responses.鈥� One such drawback is the bias of the population sample 鈥� web surfers who like jokes.
Counting cornflakes
Wiseman has set up one hypothesis based on the cognitive estimation task. This is a series of questions probing a person鈥檚 mental flexibility, such as 鈥渉ow many cornflakes are there in an average bowl?鈥�. Wiseman suspects that people who perform best at this task will find the jokes most funny, as brain studies suggest that the same part of the brain is used for both.
The project, called Laugh Lab, could reveal whether there is one type of joke that appeals across national boundaries. It may also give insights into the evolution of humour with age.
Lowis鈥檚 research has not found gender differences in humour but says that as people get older, they laugh more. He thinks 鈥渢his is because many jokes are an exaggeration of real life situations, and if you have experienced that, it鈥檚 much funnier鈥�.
Laugh-o-meter
All the jokes entered in the database will be rated by other users. At the end of six months, the funniest 30 gags will be given to a professional comedian, who will record the jokes as audio files with variable timing. The assessment will then begin again for the best joke, with the best timing.
One problem Laugh Lab may face in unearthing the wittiest gems is that any submitted joke that is judged to be rude or offensive will not be published on the site.
鈥淓xcluding these jokes will obviously have some effect 鈥� those sort of jokes will be funniest to some sorts of people,鈥� says Wiseman, 鈥淏ut this is a public experiment.鈥�
He does, however, expect to own the world鈥檚 largest collection of dirty jokes by the year鈥檚 end.
The Laugh Lab project is part of the British Association鈥檚 Science Year which starts on 7 September 2001.