Talk:The Funniest Joke in the World
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I don't think the references to Star Trek and Red Dwarf have anything at all to do with a joke being fatally funny - I have removed them. Cgs
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[edit] A predecessor?
If this sketch is a significant example of this type of humor, then I think it's relevant (both here and at Motif of harmful sensation) that Al Capp published a very similar storyline in the comic strip Li'l Abner before this Monty Python episode. I have no idea if the Pythons knew the earlier work and were influenced by it. I've been trying to research the exact date of publication of the Li'l Abner story, but the collections of that comic strip all seem to be out of print. Anybody know?
The plot: a writer creates the funniest joke in the world, which causes any who hear or read it to die laughing. A world power that competes with the U.S. gets access to the joke. Their agents arrange for Li'l Abner Yokum to perform the joke live on American network television. This will cause the death of most of the U.S. (This theme of using the joke as a weapon is also repeated in the Python sketch.) However, Abner does not get the joke, so he substitutes one he thinks is funnier (Why did the calf go around its mother? To get to the udder side.), thus saving America.
Glenn6502 01:50, 21 Apr 2004 (UTC)
[edit] An attempt to translate "translation" from German
Could a German speaker give a rough idea of what the "translation" means? I realize it's ungrammatical nonsense, but it might be interesting. --Twinxor 04:59, 3 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- It's mostly gibberish, not just ungrammatical. The words I recognize are "If is the (Nunstuck) (git) and (slotermeyer)? Yes! (Beiherhund) the or the (flipperwald) (gersput)!" Not much there :) Adam Bishop 09:15, 3 Sep 2004 (UTC)
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- Nunstück is a nonsense word, but can be translated to something like "now-piece". Slotermeyer can be interpreted as a name (Meyer is a common German last name, and two-part last names are also common - but there is no Slotermeyer in the German telephone books). Two other word parts which are German words are hund (dog) and wald (forest) - however in Just the words it is spelled as Flipperwaldt. Maybe the gersput was supposed to be gespurt (colloquial for has obeyed), but in that spelling is totally nonsense. andy 18:27, 14 Sep 2004 (UTC)
[edit] Actual use of the joke in war?
Shouldn't the article also mention that in the sketch the joke was acutally used with very plausible results? (added by User:67.241.216.39 on November 7th, 2004)
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- Why? He did say "in the sketch"... Adam Bishop 7 July 2005 16:35 (UTC)
[edit] "To the Unknown Joke"
I take it this inscription is a reference to the The Unknown Warrior and/or Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. How should the article point this out? --Piet Delport 07:00, 20 January 2006 (UTC)
- So it shall be written. So it shall be done. Wahkeenah 12:37, 20 January 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Copyright
I think that by going this precise into the contents of the sketch, this actually becomes a copyright violation. I therefore think we should diminish the amount of description of the gag. - Andre Engels 11:11, 27 April 2006 (UTC)
- Try avoiding copyright paranoia. Until you provide strong reasons, this shouldn't be seen as any kind of copyright violation. —msikma <user_talk:msikma> 13:00, 10 September 2006 (UTC)
