Laughlab: Explaining The Funniest Joke In The World
In 2001 psychologist Richard Wiseman created LaughLab; a yearlong project to discover the funniest joke in the world. After analysing 40,000 jokes that were rated over 1.5 million times, the project was finalised and the winning joke was announced. According to Wiseman and his team, the funniest joke in the world goes as follows: 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?" (Laughlab,
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However, the project does not show the linguistic workings of jokes that cause them to be funny to us. What factors enable people to understand jokes? What prevents people from understanding jokes? What factors improve or deteriorate the delivery of jokes? Do these factors differ per language or conversation type? This essay will attempt to answer these questions by discussing the linguistic factors that influence the delivery and understanding of jokes in different types of conversation in English and Dutch, using Clark’s common ground theory and joint construal principle and Grice’s cooperative principle.
1. Background
1.1 Common Ground According to Bo Petterson LaughLab’s winning joke had “a universal appeal across different countries, among both men and women, young and old” (Petterson, 2004, p. 159). This implies that there is something that all people in the world have in common that makes this joke funny to them. Clark calls this concept common ground, which is described as sum of two people’s mutual, common or joint knowledge, beliefs and superstition (Clark, 1996, p. 93). When common ground is established on a shared basis, it can be dissected as follows:
“P is common ground for members of community C if and only if: 1. Every member of C has information that basis b
However, the project does not show the linguistic workings of jokes that cause them to be funny to us. What factors enable people to understand jokes? What prevents people from understanding jokes? What factors improve or deteriorate the delivery of jokes? Do these factors differ per language or conversation type? This essay will attempt to answer these questions by discussing the linguistic factors that influence the delivery and understanding of jokes in different types of conversation in English and Dutch, using Clark’s common ground theory and joint construal principle and Grice’s cooperative principle.
1. Background
1.1 Common Ground According to Bo Petterson LaughLab’s winning joke had “a universal appeal across different countries, among both men and women, young and old” (Petterson, 2004, p. 159). This implies that there is something that all people in the world have in common that makes this joke funny to them. Clark calls this concept common ground, which is described as sum of two people’s mutual, common or joint knowledge, beliefs and superstition (Clark, 1996, p. 93). When common ground is established on a shared basis, it can be dissected as follows:
“P is common ground for members of community C if and only if: 1. Every member of C has information that basis b