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The Funniest Joke in the Worl Read the following article from a popular psychology magazine . What two opinions are presented in the article ? So , what ' s so funny ? By Barbara Gold Our analyst , Barbara Gold , examines two viewsof humor and gives readers something serious to think about — next time they laugh . In a recent experiment called "LaughLab , " Dr . Richard Wiseman , a British professor of psychology , tried to find out if there is such a thing as " universal humor . " Wiseman was interested in whether people from different countries find the same things funny , and whether there are certain types ofjokes that all nationalities might find funny . On the "LaughLab" web site , Wiseman asked thousands of people from around the world to rate the jokes listed . They had to rate jokes on a five-point scale , from " not very funny" to " extremely funny . " Many people thought that Wiseman ' s experiment was a waste . David Haynes , a stand-up comedian , believes that humor is subjective . He says : "What ' s very funny to me might not be at all funny to you . That is the reason that there are so many different comedians out there . Each comedian appeals to different people . " Wiseman disagrees . He thinks that jokes have certain elements in common . He also thinks that there are some things that many people seem to find amusing or funny . Jokes based on stereotypes and on word play are two examples . Since he was looking for universal humor , Wiseman did not study local humor , those jokes that deal with people and events that are specific to a certain country . For the same reason , political jokes were not part of the survey . Many people , however , feel that the most intelligent humor is local humor . Haynes explains : "The comedy that travels easily is often very simple and unsophisticated . That is why Mr . Bean and Beavis and Butt-head are so popular all over the world . " Wiseman and his team discovered that we can learn a lot about a country by looking at its jokes . For example , they found that Americans and Canadians prefer superiority jokes — jokes that make the listener feel better than , or superior to , others . On the other hand , the British , Irish and Australians most enjoy jokes that involve word play — unusual and humorous ways of using words . Wiseman and his team did not come up with the world's funniest joke —a joke considered funny on a universal level . Perhaps in the future , they should take a different approach and focus on what is different in jokes around the world and not simply on finding a joke that everyone finds funny .

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