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

Contents 1 A predecessor? 2 An attempt to translate "translation" from German 3 Actual use of the joke in war? 4 "To the Unknown Joke" 5 Copyright 6 Glitches 7 Translation removed 8 Hitler's joke

[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)

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)

"Wenn" can not be translated as "When", as it is conditional, so it would be more correct to translate it as "If" (but of course it is possible that the Pythons meant "Wann" instead of "Wenn", in this case "When" would be correct. Would make more sense, as the sentence ends with a questionmark.). The "Nunstück" could be translated as nowpiece (nonsensical in German as well as in English), but a Stück can also be a piece of music or a play for theatres. "Nowplay" would be a possible translation as well, and keeping the theatre and music in mind, I'd think of something like "contemporary play" (yeah, okay, you need a bit of creative freedom for that one). "Git" could easily be "geht" spelled wrong (would mean "goes"). Slotermeyer... No idea. "Sloter" doesn't sound German that much, more like Dutch. The word Beiherhund could as well be a mix of two German words (bei and Hund) and an English one (her), so, as a phrase, it would mean "by her dog" or "with her dog". "Oder" can of course mean "or", but when it in spelled with a capital O in the middle of a sentence, it is more likely that the river Oder is meant. On the other hand, within the context, "or" would make more sense. That's probably a tie. The word "Flipper"... we use that for a pinball machine (not just for the flipper parts, but for the whole thing). So... another possible translation, with just a tiny bit of creative freedom would be as follows:

"When is the contemporary piece and Slotermeyer going? Yes! ... With her dog, this or obeyed to the pinball machine forest."

Not sure if I should change the article. Anyone laughing yet? ;)80.142.238.213 01:15, 5 April 2007 (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)

No one believes you. --Ardonik.talk()^* July 7, 2005 10:29 (UTC)

Why? He did say "in the sketch"... Adam Bishop 7 July 2005 16:35 (UTC)

I totally missed that! Thanks for the clarification. --Ardonik.talk()^* July 7, 2005 18:01 (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)

[edit] Glitches

One glitch I noticed when seeing the sketch was: The fatal joke was first used 1944, but the german V-Joke was told in the radio 1942. Is this worth mentioning? -- Skeeve (not registered)

Nice catch, but it's original research unless you can cite a reliable source for the info. Maybe there's something in DVD commentary?--Drat (Talk) 07:36, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

I'm not so used to this wikipedia stuff so forgive mistakes I make. I just watched the 9 minute version of the sketch on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjbYNgIi5ss and there you hear the 3 (correction 6!) falling sounds I added to the article (Time 2:50).

Regarding the glitch: You hear the speaker from the off saying "So on July 8th, 1944 the joke was first told to the enemy" (Time: 4:18). When the "V-Joke" was shown a text appears "1942... somewhere in London" (Time: 8:52). -- Skeeve (not registered)

Yes, but all the same, it is still original research, which is not permitted here. In addition, the youtube video can't be used as a source as it is a violates copyright. If you can provide a reliable source that points these things out, you can cite those sources. An example would be if the date mistake is mentioned in DVD commentary.--Drat (Talk) 15:05, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

Why didn't you link to original research earlier!? I didn't knew about that. I'm not english (I'm a descendant of ;-) "the enemy"), so excuse me when I don't understand everything at once. Can you explain what's the difference between a) the wrong date being mentioned in the DVD commentary and b) the mention of he wrong date itself in the sketch on the very same DVD? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 80.137.124.238 (talk) 19:20, 3 January 2007 (UTC).

Sorry about not linking it earlier. It's still your own personal observation. Essentially, we are allowed to summarise stories, but any interpretation (or pointing out of errors) requires citations.--Drat (Talk) 19:40, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

There is little difference. I cannot see the issue with citing the video itself as opposed to citing a DVD commentary. — mæstrosync ^{talk&contribs}, 12:22, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

It's pointless trivia regardless.--Drat (Talk) 12:16, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

Agreed- the video itself is the source here, you don't need a separate source. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 128.61.38.107 (talk) 05:04, 26 January 2007 (UTC).

[edit] Translation removed

I'm removing the section "Translation, stem-by-stem". The joke is nonsense which does not mean anything particular in German, and most of the proposed etymologies for the nonsense words invented are original research. Gandoman 22:49, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

You also removed the movie version of the German-developed joke... —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 124.168.233.190 (talk) 08:22, 1 February 2007 (UTC).

Actually, that was me. It was unneeded detail and there didn't need to be a great big table dedicated to it.--Drat (Talk) 10:14, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

They are not original research. Use a dictionary, translator, and Google. And who are you to say what's unneeded? -lysdexia 14:50, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

But the translation translated part of words differently, and then put the words together again. Do you have any sources for a dictionary containing the words "nowfitt", "sheltergreatter", "byeardog" and "pinballwealdt"? Has this translation ever been used outside Wikipedia? I would most certainly call these invented words original research. Most of the words in the German version of the joke (except closed-class words like "when", "is", etc.) are gibberish words that do not exist in German, so an attempt to translate them would yield gibberish in English too. It would be better not to translate them, and simply point out that the words in the joke are not real German words. The article already does this. Gandoman 11:00, 9 February 2007 (UTC)

What do you mean by differently? They are verbatim. Do you care if a dictionary doesn't list "wavefunction" but does "wave" and "function"? (And there was no "when" in the joke.) -lysdexia 03:37, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Hitler's joke

Should Hitler's counter joke (My dog has no nose. How does it smell? Terrible!) be mentioned? Wikiwarlock 01:02, 30 March 2007 (UTC)