Quest for the world's funniest joke

A British scientist has launched a quest for the world's funniest joke.

In the process, he hopes to find out what makes us laugh.

Richard Wiseman, a psychologist from Hertfordshire University near London, said the year-long, internet-based search should throw light on whether men and women, the young and old, and different nationalities find different jokes funny.

"It is an attempt to delve into the psychology of humour," he told a science conference in Glasgow.

People can log on to the experiment's website to submit jokes and give their verdicts on a sample of jokes submitted by other people.

The quest has a "keep it clean" rule - smutty and offensive jokes will not make it to the final reckoning, no matter how funny they are.

"A student will come in every morning and edit out the rude ones," Dr Wiseman said.

After six months, jokes deemed to be the funniest will be recorded by a professional comedian with a variety of punchline timings to arrive at what - theoretically - should be the killer comic formula.

- REUTERS

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