Did you hear the one about the psychologists who are carrying out a study to find out what makes us laugh?
The search is now on to find the world's funniest jokes. The public is being asked to log on to laughlab.co.uk and rate a set of jokes according to how funny they are. The objective is to explore the psychology of humour.
Stand up is the hardest act of all. What makes one person laugh could make the next person cringe.
The website has been set up by the Psychology Unit at Hertfordshire University as part of a study exploring the psychology of humour.
Anybody who wants to can log on, rate jokes and submit their own.
Sue Hardijenko, Science Communications Manager, BAAS, says that the study hopes to get a better understanding of different types of sense of humour. Some of the questions being asked of the study include: Do men and women have a different sense of humour? Does humour change with age?
The Irish are famous for their sense of humour and Sue is encouraging as many people as possible to log on and submit their views.
The experiment will run for a year and the scientists want to collect one thousand jokes.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 6 September 2001. The reporter is Anthony Murnane.
