SolarGarlic

By JILL LAWLESS

Associated Press Writer

October 3, 2002, 10:02 AM EDT

LONDON -- Drum roll, please -- an online search for the world's funniest joke has produced a winner.

In a year-long experiment called LaughLab, a British psychology professor asked thousands of people around the world to rate the humor value of a list of jokes; they could also add their own favorites.

In December, Richard Wiseman and his associates announced the front-runner, a hoary old gag involving fictional detective Sherlock Holmes and his sidekick, Dr. Watson. But in the final tally of some 2 million votes for 40,000 jokes, announced Thursday, a new joke emerged as a round-the-world rib-tickler:

"A couple of New Jersey hunters are out in the woods when one of them falls to the ground. He doesn't seem to be breathing, his eyes are rolled back in his head.

"The other guy whips out his cell phone and calls the emergency services. He gasps to the operator: 'My friend is dead! What can I do?'

"The operator, in a calm soothing voice says: 'Just take it easy. I can help. First, let's make sure he's dead.'

"There is a silence, then a shot is heard. The guy's voice comes back on the line. He says: 'OK, now what?'"

"Many of the jokes submitted received higher ratings from certain groups of people, but this one had real universal appeal," said Wiseman, who has published a book based on the experiment.

Wiseman, who teaches at the University of Hertfordshire in southern England, said the research revealed that different countries preferred different types of jokes. Respondents were asked to rate jokes on a five-point scale from "not very funny" to "very funny."

Germans were the most likely to find all types of jokes funny, while Canadians were the least amused of the 10 top responding nations.

The British, Irish, Australians and New Zealanders favored jokes involving wordplay, while continental Europeans liked jokes with a surreal bent. Americans and Canadians preferred jokes invoking a strong sense of superiority -- either because a character looks stupid or is made to look stupid by someone else.

Among the jokes favored by Americans:

"Texan: 'Where are you from?'

"Harvard graduate: 'I come from a place where we do not end our sentences with prepositions.'

"Texan: 'OK, where are you from, jackass?'"

Wiseman said jokes work "for lots of different reasons. 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 winning joke about the hunters, he said, "contained all three elements."

Computer analysis also threw up a number of arcane humor "facts." Not all animal jokes, for example, are created equal -- jokes mentioning ducks were rated as funnier than other jokes.

And length matters. Jokes containing 103 words were thought to be especially funny. The winning joke is 102 words long.

* _

On the Net:

Laughlab: www.laughlab.co.uk

17507...

well, for a go to D-man, they have Leopold. Coming off of his hobey baker winning year in NCAA he should pick up some of the slack...Conroy will stay on the first line too...

Good luck to all your favorite teams people!!

Come on out to Calgary Kung! should be a good time! if you come out for the 12th you have your choice of the New Deal, Leo Kottke and tri-continental (featuring

madagascar slim and lester quitsau) all in the same night. The 14th is the SCI show and there is "supposedly" a nero/tala seemless set show later that week? (can someone confirm or deny this please?thanks..) Do it up !!

Swwwweeeet! :

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story.asp?ID=6732&hubName=nhl

!!

Saturday nights won't be the same at all!! Its quite sad to know that Ron won't be around (hopefully they can still work it out). I always felt Ron was a good Canadian boy that was really into what he was about, Canada and hockey. After moving to the U.S for more than a decade and then returning to Calgary, HNIC was the first thing I identified with. Ron and Don made/make a great duo and hope it all works out in the end.

Go team Alberta!!

Go Habs!

Go 'Nucks!

Go to Hell, Leafs

Go try and play some exciting hockey for a change, Sens

OHHH, i get it!! Two halves ALWAYS make a right?

beer?

String Cheese Incident Announces New Year’s Run

From Jambands.com

String Cheese Incident has confirmed its New Year’s plans. For the second year in a row, the band will play three nights at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco on December 28, 29 and 31. “Very special guests” are expected to join the group on the 28th and 29th. String Cheese will play three sets on New Year’s Eve. More information will be released in the coming weeks.

Tickets go on sale on October 8 through www.sciticketing.com. Children 12 and under will be admitted at half price.

OK OK OK. Its a little far away, BUT, Chicago has to be the home of the greatest fast food EVER. Anyone ever dive into a Portillo's Italian Beef?? Or any type of Fontana's sub? Fontana's puts Quizno's to shame, for real. As per the moe NYE thread, if you need an extra push to get to Chi town, go for the food alone. Not to mention the Chicago Deep Dish pizza. AHHH!!! gotta go gotta go gotta go...I swear, just thinking about it makes me get fat. Oh, and best Gyros too

A little small, maybe. NYE in Chicago, AWESOME!! last year was the first year in about 12 that i hadn't spent NYE in Chicago with friends. Most likely won't be going this year either though. Chicago is a wonderful city and I urge anyone who is condidering this trip to GO GO GO!

Regardless, Ive been to the Aragon many times and always enjoy myself. Off the top of my head ive seen Blues Traveler and Primus there and both were wicked.

I still need to see moe as well. I went to a show earlier this month in IL but became a victim of chemical misfortune (without my knowing some ass gave something of the wrong variety). The first two songs were fun though...

Wings can go suck an egg

I suppose you Wings fans probably root for the lions too eh? From a sports standpoint, I did not get along with anyone in Michigan when i lived there:)

OK, lets get an email discussion list going about this....it seems to me that some brainstorming needs to be done....Who wants to take emails down? Do you have a number of them already, Northern?

shawn@jambands.ca

Well, too keep it in the canadian band realm, Id go with Burt Neilson Band Y2K show on top of sunshine mountain. Wasn't taped (to my knowledge) and my buddies said it was a blast.

And for classic purposes ill go with the Dead 07/03/70 McMahon Stadium, Calgary, Alberta. This was during the Festival Express tour. It still boggles my mind that they played here in Calgary @ the stadium. There are apparently video portions of this show floating around that i would love to get...

Sun. Sept. 22, 2002 Mezzrow's 1546 Queen St. W. Toronto (416) 535.4906 no cover 9:30pm

Weds. Sept. 25, 2002 AlleyKatz 2409 Yonge (N of Eglinton). Toronto (416) 481-6865

Sat. Oct 12, 2002 Cafe Dekuf Ottawa, ON

Hey! I know Mark and M were unable to keep this project going and I was wondering if anyone has taken over the rains?? Im pretty sure I don't have the time/resources to do it myself but I would gladly contribute with a group of people who were interested....Whats up? has there been an initiative? Northern Wish? I know you were into it...anyone? We HAVE to keep it alive!!!

Some stuff currently gettin played 'round here:

Karl Denson's late set at Bonnaroo. Just AWESOME!!

Mofro 2/2/02 (think thats the date).

Robert Randolph second night at Bonnaroo.

And playing right NOW, Railroad Earth 8/27/02, Carbondale IL.

Jack Johnson "Brushfire Fairytales". Playing it all summer and can still toss it in for a mellow mood.

Book: The McNally Dead book. I agree w/ Scottie, its quite comprehensive

Movie: Well, i don't really have an opinion that's good or bad, but, I saw that new Robin Williams flick, "One Hour Photo". Anyone have any comments on this ?? i left the theater just saying "hmmmmm". I like the "look" of the movie but i think i missed the punchline....

Dirty Sam Rackham

...hehe

Well, this sucks. The Team 960 in Calgary is attempting to stick with it...though we may lose the Rome show. Instead of Romanuck and the Van Horne shows, we get the Sporting News Radio from the States. This blows.

Hey people. Sorry to grovel like this but...im going down to the States for a wedding next week and wanted to bring some friends a little killer CANJAM! I want a really HOT gtb show to give them as well as the 4/6 BNB show from this year (heard it smoked and they are BNB biggest fans in the midwest;) I can cover the rest of the bands they havn't heard....anyone have DC or FTP? we can swap, or ill just send ya some shows in return...Thanks Skancs! Wish i was at EVOLVE....

Hello. this is a longshot, but is anyone gonna be at the moe show on Sep 2nd in Champaign, IL?? Ill be there and thought this would be closest place ive been in a long while where i might actually run into some skancs....lemme know!

Doug, we've got one going. From a previous post:

Come one, come all!

There is currently a league forming for Fantasy NFL Football 2002. We have around 5 users so far and anyone else is welcome to join. We haven't yet decided if it is going to be a payout pool (one show per entrant), but we can talk about that later.

Go to www.thesportingnews.com

Register with a user name and password.

The Fantasy Football League name is:

Canadian Phootball League

The password is:

420

Enjoy!

yeah, ive seen that on CMT before.... thats when i discovered where the hell John Molo came from..

Hey Pudds...i live in the West,,Calgary. I just recieved the same show, this source:

Umphrey's McGee

6/21/02

The Theatre @ Bonnaroo Music Festival

Manchester, TN

source: [KBSBD] SBD (Delayed via TC D-Two)+AKG414B-ULS>

Allen Heath WZ14:4:2+>PCM-R500>DA-P1 @ 48k

transfer: PCM-R300>ZA2>SForge>Samplitude>CDWAV>SHN

team umphreaks BUNKAROO SHN (skomp@skomp.net)

** thanks to Mike Niven for the DAT Master (8/15/02) **