That can't be true.

You may not like this joke like this joke, definitely not like this joke, and it feels like joke preference changes from person to person.

But what if I told you that scientists have found a joke that is rated as the funniest?

But before I got to the funniest joke in the world, I'm going to explain to you what makes something funny.

Why comedians keep getting canceled show you a video of the first time I ever attempted stand up and end with what survey say is the funniest joke in the world.

In order to understand how scientists study jokes, you must first understand what makes something funny.

It is found that on average, people last 17.5 times per day.

I don't know what a 0.5 laugh is like.

A and a good sense of humor tends to always be one of the highest rated traits for friends, for spouses and even love us.

Why are we so attracted to funny?

It is predicted that human language evolved between 80,000 to 160,000 years ago, pushed by the evolutionary advantage of storytelling, evolutionary biologists think it is because as a pack it would have been helpful to tell stories about that other pacto you know, talk about the dude over there who's kind of like killing everyone or to maybe be like Wait where the Berries at where the barriers.

That in fact, a lot of theorists think that at first our language evolved as gossip away, to sort of parse out in like talk smack about the people around you in order to keep yourself safe by understanding who was dangerous and who was on your side.

Humor and laughing, on the other hand, evolved as a signal to yourself and to others that things were safe, that things were okay as hunter gatherers when we were laughing and when we were telling jokes, it meant that it was time to play, to socialize and explore.

That's why we still enjoy jokes now and comedians now and humorous things because it's actually a sign that we are in fact safe, which is really fascinating because in order to understand the best joke in the world, you have to understand what it means to feel safe and unsafe at the same time known as the benign violation theory.

A joke requires three things.

One in unsafe violation of a situation to a flip of that situation.

So it feels safe.

And three, both perceptions must occur simultaneously.

Okay, this can sound confusing, but there is a clear metaphor to understand.

And remember this theory.

If a friend tickles you, they are in fact violating you.

But it feels safe because you know them.

While you can laugh, you can have a little giggle.

You could say Stop, get off.

But if a stranger on the bus tickles you, yes, they are violating you.

But there's no flip of that situation that feels safe.

You feel unsafe.

You push them away.

You got upset.

You don't laugh.

Maybe you pop their eyeballs out with your thumbs.

It's a completely different situation.

A good joke has to feel safe and unsafe at the same time.

In fact, scientists took people and put them in an FMRI machine and made them watch The Simpsons and Seinfeld and found that joke detection occurred in the left inferior frontal and posterior temporal courtesies of the left side of the brain.

That was a lot of big words, but This is the part of the brain that tries to make sense of contrasts and look for resolutions in our lives.

Comedians have a brilliant way of talking about things that feel taboo.

Maybe we don't want to say them out loud the darkest thoughts that we might have and flipping them to feel resolved and safe so that we can laugh.

And it is also why there could be such stark contrast between what you think it's funny and what someone else does.

A lot of straight white male comedians air coming under fire recently for saying jokes that they think are safe but audiences are telling them now are offensive.

This is really fascinating because a lot of these jokes are at the expense of women or queer people or people of color.

And historically, comedians have mostly bean, white and male.

In the 19 seventies, Onley 2% of professional stand up comedians were women in the 19 nineties, 20% of professional stand up comedians for women, and now it's only 35% of professional stand up comedians that are women.

But it does mean that new voices have emerged in the comedies Fear and comedy has essentially evolved because audiences are going to feel more safe, seeing a woman make fun of a woman or a queer person making fun of the queer experience and by proxy, these people are going to be better at telling these jokes at making their audiences feel safe while talking about the taboo things that come along with being a queer person.

For example, this now leaves the white men to have to think of new ways to make the benign violation theory work for them.

I am about to show you the video of the first time I ever did stand up comedy.

It is about two years ago to this day, almost.

I feel like I'm gonna barf.

It's one of the Quran gist things I've honestly ever seen.

I've actually only been ableto watch it once in my life just to try and learn from it, and then I just couldn't again.

I cannot believe I'm going to show this dip Thio.

In this video, I say a lot of arms, which is like the number one rule.

Don't say, Um, I'm obviously just procrastinating.

This is a sad attempt at me trying to use the benign violation theory.

Here you go.

I actually was a closeted high school kid who had to try and date guys while sharing a land line with my parents.

I used to go to this thing called the Homo Hop, which was like a gay party, and have a dance and make out with guys.

And sometimes they want to get in contact and nothing screams, screams, being mature enough to date someone and writing like my parents.

I know the truth about me underneath my e eso usually how dating works, but it was really scary when they actually want to call every time the phone ring in my house.

At that time, it kind of felt like when Princess Diana died, it was like I was scared and nervous and sad, but I didn't know if I needed to be okay.

That was awful.

That was the first time I think I've ever really been on stage.

Princess Diana dying is an unsafe situation, and I think I was trying to relate it to, like my own queerness, my own vulnerability as a young person.

At the time, I didn't understand why we were all so sad I just cried with my parents because I felt like the right thing to Dio.

And also, in fact, scientists have found that there's a 17 day Leighton see period between a national tragedy happening and you being able to make a good joke about it.

This joke that I made was like 21 years after this tragedy, so I hope it was okay.

But again, it was the first time I ever to comedy.

It was essentially what I would say a bad joke.

So maybe it didn't work.

But how scientists figured out this Leighton See period is exactly how they figured out what the funniest joke in the world is.

Statistically known as Laugh Labs, a website was left up for a year where 1.5 million participants took part in a survey studying humor.

Participants around the world would give their information over to a survey, get fed a bunch of jokes and interesting questions about humor, sliding scale answers of how funny or unfunny they thought things were.

And with all of this data, there were some pretty fascinating things that we were able to take away.

The most effective jokes are 103 letters long.

So all your Twitter heads out there.

Write that down.

People seem to enjoy jokes the most at 603 p.

M.

Maybe tired from the day a little delusional laugh, laugh, laugh.

The funniest animals were ducks, which I think makes sense.

They have got corkscrew dates and most Fascinatingly, the joke I am about to tell you came in as the funniest joke in the world.

It follows the benign violation theory quite clearly, so you might think it's really funny.

Or maybe your comedy sense is a bit more.

Ault.

I'm going to read this to you like a librarian.

Two hunters from New Jersey are out in the woods When one of them collapses.

He doesn't seem to be breathing in.

His eyes are glazed over.

The other guy whips out his phone and calls emergency service.

He gasps.

I think my friend is dead.

What should I do?

The operators has calmed down.

I can help.

First make sure he's dead.

There is a silence.

Then a shot is heard back on the phone.

The guy says, Okay, now what?

Yeah, I must say, a bit too violent for my sensitive tastes.

I find the neurophysiology and evolution of humor to be extremely fascinating, especially as someone trying toe attempt stand up comedy.

But the writer E.

B.

White did famously say that analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog.

Very few people are interested, and then the frog dies.

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