A blue footed booby
The
blue-footed booby is a bird native to subtropical and tropical regions of the
Pacific Ocean. (I saw several in the Galapagos Islands.) Now, hold it right there. Did you crack a smile at
"booby"? Be honest. Getting a kick out of that word doesn't make you
immature--it means you're, well, normal. A 2017 study found that
"booby" ranked among the funniest words in the English language. (My apologies if I got you excited to read an article about a species of bird.)
(Warning:
Some of the words in this list are a little racy.)
Booty, Booty, Booty, Booty,
Laughin' Everywhere
Famous
comedians have always had their go-to words. Woody Allen favors
"feathers," "herring," "butter," and
"dwarf." Mel Brooks enjoys the sound of "nectarine" and
"Saran Wrap." But how do we know that a word is truly, empirically
funny?
Thanks
to a 2017 study nobody knew we needed, no
one has to feel embarrassed for laughing at benign, goofy-sounding words again.
This peer-reviewed research, published in Behavior Research Methods by
University of Warwick (not in the US) researchers, identified the funniest words in the English
language. To do this, the researchers presented 821 study participants with
4,997 common words. Each participant rated 211 words on a scale from 0 to 5
(most humorous), and the words with the highest mean humor rating rose to the
top. Drumroll, please ... here is the list, in order:
1.
Booty
2.
Tit
3.
Booby
4.
Hooter
5.
Nitwit
6.
Twit
7.
Waddle
8.
Tinkle
9.
Bebop
10. Egghead
11. Ass
12. Twerp
In
the study, there were some discrepancies in what different demographics fpund especially funny. Men tended to get
giddy over the words bondage, chauffeur, raccoon, birthmark, and orgy. Women
were tickled by the words jiggle, humbug, beast, circus, and juju. Age-wise,
the younger participants like the words goatee, and joint, while older people
got a kick out of burlesque and pong. Really young boys go ballistic over fart. Hey, to each his own.
The Math of LOL
Now
for the obvious follow-up question: Why? According to Tomas Engelthaler, lead
author of the study, "The research initially came about as a result of our
curiosity. We were wondering if certain words are perceived as funnier, even
when read on their own. It turns out that indeed is the case. Humor is an
everyday aspect of our lives and we hope this publicly available dataset allows
future researchers to better understand its foundations." Good enough for
me.
This isn't the first time researchers have
looked into humorous words. A 2016 study published in the Journal of
Memory and Language established the world's first mathematical theory of humor.
In it, the University of Alberta researcher uses their formulas to construct
the funniest possible nonsense words. How does snunkoople sound to you?
(Adapted from curiosity.com/Joanie Faletto)
