UK's funniest joke named

Scientists publish findings

Scientists have named what they say is Britain's funniest joke.

A survey of 100,000 people has found the best response came to the following gag:

Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson are going camping. They pitch their tent under the stars and go to sleep. Sometime in the middle of the night Holmes wakes Watson up.

"Watson, look up at the stars, and tell me what you deduce."

Watson says, "I see millions of stars, and if there are millions of stars, and if even a few of those have planets, it's quite likely there are some planets like Earth, and if there are a few planets like Earth out there, there might also be life."

Holmes replied: "Watson, you idiot, somebody stole our tent."

Of those that visited the experiment's website, 47 per cent gave it the highest rating.

Out of 11 nationalities, Germans rated more jokes 'very funny' than anyone else. Canadians are least likely of all to find jokes funny.

The survey also found that men found jokes involving aggression, putting women down, and sexual innuendo funniest.

Women, on the other hand, preferred jokes involving wordplay.

Psychologist Dr Richard Wiseman , from the University of Hertfordshire, said: " The response has been enormous with over 10,000 jokes submitted and over 100,000 people from over 70 countries rating them. Already, major differences have been identified in what people find funny."

The worst jokes, which people found the least funny. are:

- Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the other side.

- Why are chickens considered good employees? Because they work around the cluck

Dr Wiseman said: "While we already have some interesting findings, data collection will continue till March 2002 when we move to the second phase of the experiment. In the meantime we challenge people to submit a funnier joke than the top-rated one so far."

Published: 20 Dec 2001