The Funniest Joke in the World
The Funniest Joke in the World is the most frequent title used to refer to a Monty Pythons Flying Circus comedy sketch set during World War II, when one Ernest Scribbler, a struggling British writer, creates the funniest joke in the world and then dies laughing. (The phrases "joke warfare" and "killer joke" are also used in the sketch, and each is occasionally used as a title.) Numerous people attempting to investigate also died laughing upon reading the joke. It was finally retrieved by the British Army, and after careful testing, the joke was translated into German for use on the battlefield. Because the joke was so lethal, translators were only allowed to work on one word each; a translator who unfortunately saw two words had to be hospitalised.The German translation (made up of nonsense pseudo-German) was:
- "Wenn ist das Nunstuck git und slotermeyer? Ja! Beiherhund das oder die flipperwald gersput!"
This sketch is available on the CD-ROM game of Monty Python's The Meaning of Life.
The concept of fatal hilarity is not an uncommon one. David Foster Wallace's novel Infinite Jest deals with a videotape containing a movie so entertaining that anyone watching it loses all desire to do anything else, eventually becoming comatose and dying. Like the translators in the Monty Python sketch, the only person who could watch the movie was the director, who was too insane to be affected by the film.
In addition, much of comedy slang deals with the concept of death, e.g. "I killed them out there," "I died on stage."
A 2002 survey by a British psychiatrist to discover the funniest joke of all time conferred the distinction on the following:
- 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 the urban legend reference website www.snopes.com, there have been at least two documented instances in which people have died apparently of laughter. [1]