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?”

According to an international study, this joke scored highest out of thousands of jokes. Why did it score so high? The scientists concluded that this joke had universal appeal.

Why? Universal good jokes can be described as follows: “They sometimes make us feel superior to others, reduce the emotional impact of anxiety-provoking situations or surprise us because of some kind of incongruity.” The hunter joke contains these three items and therefore had a good change of succeeding.

From this study some interesting findings were done:

1. Germans found almost everything funny
2. People from the Republic of Ireland, the UK, Australia and New Zealand most enjoyed jokes involving word plays.
3. Americans and Canadians, on the other hand, preferred jokes where there was a strong sense of superiority – either because a character looks stupid or is made to look stupid by someone else
4. Many European countries, such as France, Denmark and Belgium, displayed a penchant for off-beat surreal humour.

I find it hard to classify which type of joke i like best. I like wordplays, but also cynical jokes…
Does that say anything about me? Probably it does, but what it says, you’ll have to tell me.

In the end, humor is such a personal thing, and jokes that one persons finds the best, maybe something another will not laugh about at all..

Let me know your favourite joke in the comments.