"The Funniest Joke in the World" (also "Joke Warfare" and "Killer Joke") is a Monty Python comedy sketch revolving around a joke that is so funny that anyone who reads or hears it promptly dies from laughter. Ernest Scribbler (Michael Palin), a British "manufacturer of jokes", writes the joke on a piece of paper only to die laughing. His mother (Eric Idle) also immediately dies laughing after reading it, as do the first constables on the scene. Eventually the joke is contained, weaponised, and deployed against Germany during World War II.
The sketch appeared in the first episode of the television show Monty Python's Flying Circus ("Whither Canada"), first shown on 5 October 1969. It appeared in altered forms in several later Python works. The German translation of the joke in the sketch is made of various meaningless, German-sounding nonsense words, and so it does not have an English translation.
Synopsis
The sketch is framed in a documentary style and opens with Ernest Scribbler (Michael Palin), a British "manufacturer of jokes", creating and writing the funniest joke in the world on a piece of paper, only to die laughing. His mother (Eric Idle) finds the joke, thinks it is a suicide note, reads it and also immediately dies laughing. Aware of the deadly nature of the joke, a brave Scotland Yard inspector (Graham Chapman) attempts to retrieve the joke, aided by the playing of very sombre music on gramophone records and the chanting of laments by fellow policemen to create a depressing atmosphere. The inspector leaves the house with the joke in hand, but also dies from laughter.
The British Army are soon eager to determine "the military potential of the Killer Joke". The punchline of the joke "Awful" is the next shot that shows Hitler's face. The original words are ', from "[The whole nation will go through] your school".
Influence, and other works
Jim Carrey is a fan of Monty Python. He described how Ernest Scribbler, played by Michael Palin, laughing himself to death in the sketch, had a huge effect on his early years.
The sketch was later remade in a shorter version for the film And Now for Something Completely Different. It is also available on the CD-ROM video game version of the film Monty Python's The Meaning of Life.
See also
- Death from laughter
- Infinite Jest
- Nothing but Gingerbread Left
- The Zahir