The Funniest Joke Ever Told in the History of the Universe

[Video Link] Boing Boing pal Joe Sabia, who has been co-curating the Boing Boing Video in-flight TV channel on Virgin America with us (channel #10 on your sky-high dial!), directed this commercial for BBC America. It's brilliant. More of Joe's work as a director here.

• [millie fink]

  I miss “Coupling.” Oh, and “The Young Ones.” Such short runs, both of them.

• [Alan]

  Dear everyone who didn’t find the video funny and then complained,

  The humor in it is that it isn’t funny, because it is a joke about academia defining what is funny and using their data to make something funny and failing.

  Carry on.

  Oh, and huntsu… generally it’s good policy to preview videos on the Internet before sharing them with children. If you’ve made it six years without a surprise bad word, I’m astonished.

  • [Maddy]

    Um, yah, Alan. You really think all those folks posting above didn’t get that this was trying to do the old “I’m-trying-to-be-dry-and-academic” thing? And, even if you do attempt this — you have to do it in a way THAT IS FUNNY. Which this is not. At all.

• [Anonymous]

  Upon exiting the bar, Stirlitz received a strong blow in the back of the head. Turning around, he saw that it was the pavement.
  - scene from the Soviet TV show, “Seventeen Moments of Spring”

  The description of that scene is funnier than the video I just watched. Proper comedy should always lead the audience down one path, only to subvert them at the last moment. Marching headlong into absurdist blather is too predictable to be funny, unless you’re trying to appeal to small children.

• [IshMEL]

  This was neither funny, nor “brilliant” in its un-funniness, satire of academia, etc.

• [dbarak]

  Must be a really small universe. So which was the funny part?

• [davejenk1ns]

  Hitler: “My dog has no nose.”

  Man in crowd: “How does he smell?”

  Hitler: “Awful!”

  • [Anonymous]

    -My dogs dyslexic

    -How does it spell?…

  • [Ugly Canuck]

    That joke’s so funny, I’m dieing over here!

  • [Scissorman]

    Man A: My dog has no nose.

    Man B: How does he smell?

    Man A: He has a special machine which he straps to his face.

• [caseylocker]

  Monty Python did it better http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gpjk_MaCGM

• [Anonymous]

  That’s the guy who got his nose bit off by the Penguin in Batman Returns.

• [MrsBug]

  One of my dad’s favorite jokes:

  So a guy rides into town and it’s just deserted. He finally comes upon a old-timer and says:
  Cowboy: Say, old timer, where is everyone?
  Old Timer: They’re down at the tree, hangin’ the Kraft Paper Cowboy.
  Cowboy: The Kraft Paper Cowboy? Never heard of him…what’s he like.
  Old Timer: Well, his shirts made of paper, his pants are made of paper, his chaps are made of paper, his gun is made of paper, heck, even his horse is made of paper.
  Cowboy: Really? Well..don’t that just beat all. What crime ya stringin’ ‘im up for?
  Old Timer: Rustlin’

  :rimshot: Thanks. I’ll be here all week. Tip your waitress.

• [franko]

  i don’t get it.

• [Anonymous]

  Wenn ist das Nunstück git und Slotermeyer? Ja!

  …Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt gersput!

• [Anonymous]

  That wasn’t a celebrity reference, just a shout-out.

• [scifijazznik]

  Do you like fish sticks? Do you like to put fish sticks in your mouth?

• [GuyInMilwaukee]

  Best setup and joke ever:

  Peter: Well, Mr. Spigott, need I point out to you where your deficiency lies as regards landing the role of Tarzan?

  Dudley: Yes, I think you ought to.

  Peter: Need I say with overmuch emphasis that it is in the leg division that you are deficient.

  Dudley: The leg division?

  Peter: Yes, the leg division, Mr. Spigott. You are deficient in it — to the tune of one. Your right leg I like. I like your right leg. A lovely leg for the role. That’s what I said when I saw you come in. I said ‘A lovely leg for the role.’ I’ve got nothing against your right leg.

  The trouble is — neither have you.

• [huntsu]

  Would have been nice to tell us about the eff word in there. I started watching it with my six year old, thinking that an ad for a TV station in the US would not have it. My bad.

• [pidg]

  I don’t get it either, but it’s probably not aimed at me as a Brit.

  Quite embarassing really (mostly due to the horrible selection of BBC comedies that rely on catchphrases and stereotypes).

  OH WAIT – is it meant to be embarassing to watch, like The Office?

• [petsounds]

  Dear BBC America Commercial,

  After further review, and the hospitalization of one of our senior cabinet members due to the onset of debilitating boredom, we regret to inform you that your application for Brilliance has been denied. We will be sending you a bill of hospital charges directly. Thank you for your submission, but please stop.

  Sincerely,
  Ministry of Brilliance

• [AnthonyC]

  Mostly off topic: I’d just like to say that Virgin America is awesome.

• [Kimmo]

  Sorry, but that’s awful.

  Despite the guy getting kicked in the balls, I still wanted to give him a headslap for being so unfunny.

• [JohnnyOC]

  I want my 2 minutes back.

  (The poster when the Monty Python sketch did make up for some of it though).

• [Kleinzeit]

  Ah! The internet in microcosm:

  “OMG! This is just, like, the funniest thing EVAH!”
  “Oh no it isn’t.”
  “Yes it is!”

  Ad lib with slight variations over looooooooooooooong fade.

  • [Talia]

    Who knew Monty Python would predict the Internet so well :)

• [endymion]

  Sorry, that was spectacularly unfunny to me, from the first few seconds to the very end. Blech. :)

• [Bitgod]

  I’m praying the rabbit is doing The Aristocrats

• [ackpht]

  Are you suggesting coconuts migrate?

• [Garst]

  I think I’ve lost my will to laugh. I couldn’t even get myself to laugh on the inside.

• [Anonymous]

  This isn’t funny. And the theory of laughter is all wrong. Check Henri-Louis Bergson. :)

• [The Gunner]

  Uh oh. X untrustable on the funny…

• [Intense]

  Hmmmm…as Steve Martin once famously said, that was …almost funny!

  But not really.

  Hey, want to amuse your more religious friends and relatives?

  Try this one (told to me by a gay friend many years ago):

  “They say Jesus loves me, but why won’t he swallow?”

  Yeah, I know. Pretty bad. But damn funny!

• [Hugh]

  I found the set up and execution pretty good. I lolzed at the end. I really did.

  The shows being advertised look pretty mediocre. Has BBC just been re-heating “Are You Being Served” with added site gags?

• [2k]

  Foolhardy was this learned fellow’s attempt to deconstruct British Comedy!
  …anyway, I chuckled.

• [Anonymous]

  A lot of the shows they’re trailing there are pretty good – but not for the reasons mentioned.

  Why?

• [Spensor]

  Not funny. Surprising that they even bothered making it.

• [Blue]

  The shows being advertised look pretty mediocre.

  Well, The Inbetweeners is good (originally on Channel 4).
  The Airport thing with the Little Britain people is shit (there’s your reheated catchphrase Are you Being Served laziness).

• [pidg]

  Meanwhile they’ve got stuff like The (Montreux Rose-winning) Peter Serafinowicz Show cancelled, never to be repeated.

• [shadowfirebird]

  Are we posting adverts now? Because, otherwise, why are we showing this?

  As other commenters have pointed out, the point of this is that it’s deliberately not funny.