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Spike Milligan Created the Funniest Joke?

MrRING

MrRING

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Is it actually the funniest?

Spike wrote world's funniest gag

A professor investigating the psychology of humour says Spike Milligan was the author of the world's funniest joke.

Five years ago, Prof Richard Wiseman did an online experiment in which 300,000 people from around the world voted for the best gag.

Prof Wiseman now says the winner was almost certainly written by Milligan during his Goon Show days.

The joke runs as follows: Two hunters are out in the woods in New Jersey when one of them collapses. He doesn't seem to be breathing and his eyes are glazed.

The other guy whips out his phone and calls the emergency services. He gasps 'My friend is dead! What can I do?' The operator says: 'Calm down, I can help. First, let's make sure he's dead.' There is a silence, then a shot is heard. Back on the phone, the guy says 'OK, now what?'

Prof Wiseman explained: "There is some very rare footage from 1951 showing the Goons in their first TV appearance. Just by chance I saw it on a documentary and saw a version of the very same joke."

The script reads:

Michael Bentine: I just came in and found him lying on the carpet there.

Peter Sellers: Oh, is he dead?

Bentine: I think so.

Sellers: Hadn't you better make sure?

Bentine: All right. Just a minute.

Sound of two gun shots.

Bentine: He's dead.

"It is very rare to be able to track down the origin of any joke but this is an exception," said Prof Wiseman
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Well, it seems so to a significant amount of the 300,000 polled. ;) I wonder what the other jokes were...?
 
Seagoon: Come in man!

Eccles: How do I get in?

Seagoon: You turn the knob on your side!

Eccles: But I haven't got a knob on my side.

Always made me smile!

mooks out
 
"I know a man with one leg called Jake"



"What was the name of his other leg?"



-
 
All this and the BBC still won't release any of the Q series on DVD!
 
crunchy5 said:
...

http://tinyurl.com/kw5t8

...

Once, when the BBC protested the late delivery of his weekly scripts, Milligan seized a knife and tried to break into Sellers's apartment. ''I was so mad,'' he later said, ''I thought that if I killed Peter, it would come right. I think I just wanted them to lock me up.'' Milligan landed in an asylum, confined for a time in a straitjacket, before returning to write more scripts and laugh onstage with his friends.

...
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"You! Chappie. Script wallah. Hurry up with that writing. Chop! Chop!"

Swine! :furious:

Yes. Milligna was a genius. And guaranteed funnier than Wittgenstein. ;)
 
Pietro_Mercurios said:
crunchy5 said:
...

http://tinyurl.com/kw5t8

Once, when the BBC protested the late delivery of his weekly scripts, Milligan seized a knife and tried to break into Sellers's apartment. ''I was so mad,'' he later said, ''I thought that if I killed Peter, it would come right. I think I just wanted them to lock me up.'' Milligan landed in an asylum, confined for a time in a straitjacket, before returning to write more scripts and laugh onstage with his friends.
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In an interview decades later, Spike was asked what would have happened if he'd killed Peter Sellers: -

- "He would have died..."

;)
 
I must say, I am old enough to remember Milligan being on TV regularly and was subjected to all his shows as my father was a huge fan, but I never really 'got' him.

Apart from when he swam down the high street in scuba gear. That was funny.
 
i can't see his pakistani dalek sketch being peformed these days mind you
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And thats such a shame because it is one of the funniest sketchs i have ever seen in my life, i, like some of the other posters above have my father to thank for my love of The Goons, Milligan, The Pythons, The two Ronnies, Porridge, Fawlty Towers etc etc the golden age of British comedy IMO and an era that will never ever be bettered.
As for the funniest Joke ever, the Pythons have covered this of course, with the sketch about finding a joke so funny that anyone hearing it would laugh themselves to death. A top 5 python sketch in my particular list (now theres an idea for a thread).
 
escargot1 said:
I must say, I am old enough to remember Milligan being on TV regularly and was subjected to all his shows as my father was a huge fan, but I never really 'got' him.

Apart from when he swam down the high street in scuba gear. That was funny.
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I'm glad I'm not the only one :lol: I do not find him remotley funny, sorry!
 
He wasn't particularly tactful either. I remember him being interviewed on TV many years ago, when he was going on about the then topical 'population explosion'. He reckoned that he'd had too many children and wished he hadn't had the last couple. :roll:

Gee, thanks, Dad.

Wait until it's time to choose your nursing home! :twisted:
 
I find him immensely funny especially his books :lol: :lol: and in interview when on form and not ill, not meaning to be offensive how can folk not find him funny?
 
He definitely wrote one of the best autobiographies, concerning the Second World War, that I've ever come across.
 
Puckoon. I remember crying with laughter on a train journey reading that one!

mooks out

PS

"I saw a little worm,
a wriggling on it's belly,
I thought I'd ask it inside,
to sit and watch the telly."
 
'Adof Hitler: My Part In His Downfall'. I will agree that that's the funniest book title ever. I bought the book for my dad's birthday, in 70s when it came out.

At that time, it was considered daring and controversial to refer jokingly to Hitler, as the memory of the war was still fresh in the older generation's minds.

It's a funny book. I learned a lot from it. At about 14. :shock:

(Mum, what are crabs?)
 
escargot1 said:
..

It's a funny book. I learned a lot from it. At about 14. :shock:

(Mum, what are crabs?)
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Made quite a change from memoirs that contained reminiscences like, "And then I said to Monty, 'Invading Holland along the Rhine at Arnhem, might just be a bridge too far, Field Marsall.' But he didn't listen."
 
One of my favourite bits from 'Rommel? Gunner Who?':

'Where did you spend you last holidays Milligan' Lt. Budden broke in.
'I went with some friends to Whitesand Bay in Cornwall.'
'...Cornwall? Cornwall.' He put his binoculars up.
'You can't see it from here sir.'
 
Didn't they also have a famously desk-bound colonel?

Taking out the rubbish, Milligan drops a piece of toilet paper, and it blows in through the colonel's office window.

Milligan's mate peeps in -

'It's landed on his desk.'
'Can you reach it without him seeing?'
'Too late, he's signed it!'

:lol:

I may have to reread that. 'The Last Turkey In The Shop', indeed. :D
 
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