In 2001, Prof Richard Wiseman teamed up with the British Association for the Advancement of Science to create a massparticipation project exploring the psychology of humour as part of Science Year in the UK. 'LaughLab' was an internet-based experiment billed as 'the scientific search for the world's funniest joke' and received widespread media attention, including the cover story of The New Yorker magazine. Over 350,000 people from 70 countries logged onto a special website, and provided data that was used to explore various aspects of the psychology of humour.

Professor Wiseman has also conducted interviews with several well known comedians and comedy writers about their work, including Ken Dodd and Armando Iannucci.

External resources

Official LaughLab website

Read a Scotsman article on LaughLab

Daily Telegraph article on science of laughter, and Richard Wiseman's interview with Ken Dodd

Selected references

Wiseman, R. (2002). Laughlab: The Scientific Search for the World's Funniest Joke. Random House: London, UK.