The Power of Jokes: A Global Search for the Funniest

It talks about a competition for the most popular joke in the world. One of the favourite ones was about Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson. Some jokes are popular everywhere, but different people prefer different types of jokes, for example men and women, and people from places such as Britain, Europe and America.

1. a) experiment b) variations c) tent d) universal

3. a) “I have found the funniest jokes in the world,” said Wiseman.

b) People enjoyed (most) (the) jokes about the relationship between men and women. (most) (more than any other(s).

c) The Americans’ and Canadians’ favourite jokes are about making somebody look stupid.

d) In order to find the world’s most popular joke Chris Wiseman conducted an experiment.

4. a) Yes, different people like different jokes. Different nationalities like British and Australian people like jokes that play with words. In Spain there are a lot of jokes about people from Cataluña, Andalucía and Galicia. I don’t understand some of the jokes that boys tell me, which are usually about girls or the toilets. They do not make me laugh and I prefer the ones they tell in television programmes like “El Club del Chiste”, which are clever and the performance of the jokes is very good.

b) I know the experiment was popular because people contributed many jokes, and almost 2 million people voted for their favourite one. Also, the television programme where he gave the result was watched by millions of people.