Posted on 06/12/2006 9:27:43 AM PDT by aculeus
Detective work by a professor investigating the psychology of humour has revealed that Spike Milligan was the author of the world's funniest joke.
Five years ago, Prof Richard Wiseman, of the University of Hertfordshire, did an online experiment in which 300,000 people from around the world took part in LaughLab, where they voted for the best gag.
Yesterday, at the Cheltenham Science Festival, Prof Wiseman said he has now discovered that it was almost certainly written by Milligan.
The joke runs as follows: Two hunters are out in the woods in New Jersey when one of them collapses. He doesn't seem to be breathing and his eyes are glazed.
The other guy whips out his phone and calls the emergency services. He gasps 'My friend is dead! What can I do?' The operator says: 'Calm down, I can help. First, let's make sure he's dead.' There is a silence, then a shot is heard. Back on the phone, the guy says 'OK, now what?'
"It is very rare to be able to track down the origin of any joke but this is an exception," said Prof Wiseman. "There is some very rare footage from 1951 showing the Goons in their first TV appearance. Just by chance I saw it on a documentary and saw a version of the very same joke."
The material would have been written by Spike Milligan and the script reads:
Michael Bentine: I just came in and found him lying on the carpet there.
Peter Sellers: Oh, is he dead?
Bentine: I think so.
Sellers: Hadn't you better make sure?
Bentine: All right. Just a minute.
Sound of two gun shots.
Bentine: He's dead.
Prof Wiseman contacted Milligan's daughter, Sile, and she is as certain as she can be that he would have written the gag. She said she was "delighted that dad wrote the world's funniest joke".
Prof Wiseman said: "I think what is interesting here is that a joke from the 1950s still works, and how it has transformed over time from a cosy sitting room to hunters in New Jersey."
He added: "Spike Milligan was clearly into surreal humour. The sort of people who like his stuff will be people with a high tolerance for ambiguity because the sketches don't really have a sense of closure."
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Even though its hilarious, the firstone still makes me cringe a little. I got fired from a job 6 years ago for sending that to a former friend who had been promoted to management.
i love that picture. Did anybody ever find the commercial video available anywhere on the internet?
Thank you. I'll be here all week.
that's not a joke.. its a myth.
This is the funniest, clean one I know:
A baby is born into a Mafia family and it's time for the "Godfather" to present the baby. However, the baby was born without any ears, and everyone is warned not to make any mention of this to the Godfather. Positive comments only.
As the Godfather stands at the front of the room with the baby, the first nervous well-wisher approaches...
"Godfather, what a good looking baby boy... he gonna grow up to be an actor like Al Pacino."
"Thank you, thank you," says the Godfather.
The next well-wisher approaches...
"Godfather, what a big, healthy baby boy. He's gonna grow up to be an athlete like Joe DiMaggio," he says cautiously.
Thank you, thank you," says the Godfather.
The third man approaches. He looks at the baby. Does a double take and stares at the baby. The crowd in the room gets quiet. Then the man looks at the Godfather and says...
"Godfather, what's wrong with his eyes?"
The Godfather looks confused and says "His eyes? Nothing, why?"
The man expresses relief and says, "Woowh. That's good. 'Cause he ain't gonna be able to wear glasses."
I told that joke at the family Thanksgiving gathering back in 2004, and my sister, completely serious, asked, "Well, was he sad?"
bump
That could be the "shortest" funniest joke in history.
Why?
Michael Bentine was great on his own show, used to have animated models of the scenes on willow china etc, kamikaze beetles...
Just told it to a coworker, was doing a fine job too until I got to the punchline, BTW is their suck a thing as a Labscam?
A guy goes to the doctor and says "doc you gotta help me, my penis is orange."
Doc says, "that's impossible"
So the guy pulls it out and sure enough, it's orange.
The doc says, "there's no medical explanation for that, tell me what do you do for hobbies, how do you spend your free time"?
The guy says; "Oh, not much, I just sit around watching porn movies and eating corn curls."
A father spoke to his son, "It's time we had a little talk
my son. Soon you will have urges and feelings you've never
had before. Your heart will pound and your hands will sweat.
You'll be preoccupied and won't be able to think of anything else."
The boy stared wide eyed and said, "Yes."
The father continued, "But don't worry, it's perfectly normal. It's called golf."
Snovel . . . that's my new favorite word! And thank goodness it's gardening season so I can use it often. ;)
"Two Irishmen walk out of a bar............"
Way funnier than the one in the article. LOL
lol... and ick at the same time.
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