Humor is weird. What makes you cackle like a maniac might leave your best friend staring at you in stone-cold silence. It’s subjective, deeply personal, and often tied to the specific culture you grew up in. Yet, back in 2001, a psychologist named Dr. Richard Wiseman decided he was going to find the holy grail of comedy. He wanted to pin down the world's funniest joke using actual data.
He launched LaughLab. It wasn't just a website; it was a massive year-long experiment in collaboration with the British Association for the Advancement of Science. Over a million people from all over the globe voted on thousands of jokes. They rated them on a scale of one to five.
The results were weird. Some jokes crushed it in the UK but flopped in the States. Germans, surprisingly, were the most enthusiastic voters. But one joke stood alone at the top of the heap.
The Joke That Won It All
Two hunters are out in the woods 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?"
That’s it. That is the world's funniest joke according to a million-person sample size.
Is it the funniest thing you’ve ever heard? Maybe not. You might even find it a bit dark or "dad-joke" adjacent. But the reason it won isn't because it’s the most hilarious thing ever written. It won because it had the widest appeal across every demographic, age group, and nationality tested.
Why This Specific Joke Works (According to Science)
Dr. Wiseman and his team didn't just count votes. They looked at why.
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The hunter joke works because of three specific psychological triggers. First, there's the incongruity. Your brain expects the hunter to check the pulse or breathing of his friend. When he takes the instruction "make sure he's dead" literally and shoots him, the sudden shift in perspective creates a "jolt." That jolt is often where the laugh lives.
Then there’s the sense of superiority. Most jokes rely on someone being a bit of an idiot. We feel smarter than the hunter who just shot his buddy. It’s a low-stakes way to boost our own ego while observing a fictional catastrophe.
Lastly, it manages "tension release." The setup is life-or-death. It’s stressful. The punchline breaks that stress in the most absurd way possible.
The Spike Milligan Connection
Interestingly, the hunter joke is actually a variation of a sketch written by the legendary Spike Milligan for the 1951 BBC program The Goon Show. The original version involved a character named Eccles. It’s fascinating that a joke written in the mid-20th century by a British surrealist managed to win a global competition fifty years later. It suggests that while trends in comedy change—like the rise of "cringe" humor or hyper-specific internet memes—the foundational structure of a good joke is remarkably stable.
Cultural Divides in What We Find Funny
The LaughLab study revealed some pretty stark differences in humor across borders. If you’re in the UK, Ireland, or Australia, you probably lean toward wordplay and dry, surreal wit. North Americans, on the other hand, tended to prefer jokes with a clear sense of "superiority"—jokes where someone looks like a fool.
Take this joke, which performed exceptionally well in many European countries but barely registered in others:
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A dog goes into a telegraph office and writes: "Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof." The clerk examines the paper and says, "There are only nine words here. You could send another 'Woof' for the same price." The dog looks at him, confused. "But then it wouldn't make any sense," he replies.
It’s surreal. It’s a bit "meta." It’s the kind of joke that makes some people roll their eyes while others lose their minds laughing.
The German Factor
One of the most surprising findings from Wiseman’s research was about Germany. There’s a tired stereotype that Germans lack a sense of humor. The data proved the exact opposite. Germans gave the highest ratings to almost every joke in the database. They didn't just like one type of humor; they seemed to appreciate the craft of joke-telling across the board.
The Evolution of the World's Funniest Joke in the Internet Age
Since 2001, the way we consume humor has fundamentally shifted. We’ve moved from "the joke" (a narrative setup and punchline) to "the meme" (a visual or conceptual reference).
If you ran LaughLab today, the world's funniest joke might not even be a joke. It might be a specific five-second video clip or a deep-fried image of a sentient bean. Our attention spans have shriveled. We want the payoff immediately.
However, the "Two Hunters" joke remains a benchmark because it is structurally perfect. It’s short. It’s visual. It doesn't require specific cultural knowledge to understand. You don't need to know who the President is or what the latest TikTok trend is. You just need to know what a hunter is and why shooting your friend is a bad idea.
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Why Humor Actually Matters for Your Brain
Laughing isn't just about entertainment. It’s a biological necessity. When you laugh at the world's funniest joke, your brain releases a cocktail of endorphins and dopamine. It lowers cortisol (the stress hormone).
There's a reason doctors say laughter is the best medicine, even if that sounds like a Hallmark card. Research from the Mayo Clinic suggests that laughter can actually improve your immune system. By releasing neuropeptides that help fight stress and potentially more serious illnesses, a good belly laugh is basically a workout for your insides.
Misconceptions About the Search for the Funniest Joke
A lot of people think there is a "math" to humor. While the rule of three (setting up a pattern and then breaking it on the third beat) is a real thing, you can't just plug variables into a computer and get a perfect joke.
AI-generated humor is a great example. If you ask an LLM to write the funniest joke in the world, it usually spits out something incredibly generic or confusingly literal. It misses the timing. Comedy is about the "pause." It’s about the human connection between the teller and the listener.
Wiseman’s study didn't find the best joke. It found the most compatible joke. There is a huge difference. The "best" joke usually targets a specific niche. The "most compatible" joke is the one that offends the fewest people while still providing a legitimate surprise.
The Actionable Insight: How to Use This in Real Life
If you want to be funnier in your daily life, don't try to memorize a hundred different gags. Instead, understand the mechanics that made the "Two Hunters" joke win.
- Practice Brevity: The winning joke is lean. No wasted words.
- Lean into Incongruity: If you're telling a story, lead the listener down one path and then take a sharp left turn.
- Know Your Audience: The LaughLab data proves that what works for a 20-year-old in Berlin won't necessarily land with a 60-year-old in New York.
- The "K" Rule: Comedy writers have long held that words with "K" sounds (like "cupcake," "Kalamazoo," or "duck") are inherently funnier to the human ear. Use them.
Understanding the world's funniest joke isn't about becoming a stand-up comedian overnight. It's about recognizing the universal ways humans connect through absurdity. Whether it's a hunter in the woods or a dog in a telegraph office, we laugh because we’re all trying to make sense of a world that often doesn't make any.
Next time you're in a social setting and things feel a bit stiff, try testing out the "Two Hunters." Even if it doesn't get a roar of laughter, it's a great conversation starter about the science of why we find things funny in the first place. Check out Dr. Richard Wiseman’s book, Quirkology, if you want to see the full breakdown of his psychological experiments beyond just the jokes.