Word That Means Funny but Serious

Pop quiz! Which discussion in each of these pairs is funnier: State of war or booty? Sctori or rembrob? Tomato or pickle? If you had to rank them, what would exist the funniest give-and-take in the globe?

For each of those multiple-choice questions, y'all probably had a gut instinct on which was funnier. If you chose the 2d choice in those give-and-take pairings, you lot're validating the research that's been washed on why sure words brand the states chuckle. Merely what makes the latter options funnier? There are a few theories. Here, we'll swoop into iii that attempt to notice the source of sense of humor in private words. And we'll also attempt to figure out which is the funniest word in the earth.

Before nosotros outset, aye, dissecting comedy is sometimes securely unfunny. Hopefully, nosotros'll avoid killing the joke completely.

An English-Focused Study Of Words

For the near direct reply to what the funniest English word is, we can look at a study that focused on that exact question. Researchers had participants charge per unit the funniness of various words. The study was done in the U.k., and then it should be noted there may be differences between British and American sense of humor. But the insights are still useful.

Here, presented to you, are the results for the 12 funniest words in the English language, in descending lodge of hilarity:

1.    Booty
2.   Tit
3.   Booby
4.   Hooter
5.   Nitwit
6.   Twit
7.   Waddle
8.   Tinkle
9.   Bebop
10. Egghead
11.  Donkey
12. Twerp

Alright, the words aren't exactly a laugh riot on their own. From this list, yous might recall middle-school boys are at the acme of their comedy game. Many of these words are kittenish taboos, specifically parts of the female person anatomy. Would booty be every bit funny if not for what it means? Probably non.

It's worth noting that adults do get plenty of amusement out of the words on this list, even so. Take, for case, Finnish comedian Ismo'due south performance on Conan about the give-and-take "donkey."

If we wait past the juvenile nature of some of the words hither, in that location are other commonalities worth noting. In the analysis, researchers said the most reliable indicator was that the less common the word, the funnier people found it. There likewise are some significant commonalities in how the words audio. For example, "tit," "twit" and "nitwit" all fabricated the listing, which suggests that English-speakers may find something funny about the similar sounds they make. The list has a lot more difficult consonants similar "b," "p," "g" and "t" than soft consonants similar "m," "l," "south" and "f." Is it possible that sure words only sound funnier than others, independent of what they mean? For that, we'll take to descend into nonsense.

Hilarious Nonsense Words

The funniest word in the world is, almost by definition, going to exist a existent word that is in the dictionary. But to figure out why i word is funnier than another — even when the ii mean the aforementioned thing, like "booty" existence funnier than "ass" — nosotros have to look at nonsense words. People might laugh at "haul" merely because they think butts are funny, just if they're giggling at "plomble," it has to be something else that'due south causing the laughter.

To notice out which nonsense words are funniest, i study took a bunch of non-words and asked participants how funny they were. What the report found is that the less like a nonsense discussion is to a real word, the funnier it was. The option couldn't existnix like a real word, because something similar "wqvzcxvjz" is merely an unpronounceable pile of letters. Words like "snunkpool," which are weird but not completely impossible, were the ones most likely to scissure people up. This besides corresponds with the study in the previous section, which used real words, but the funnier words were withal the less common ones.

The researchers for this report believe that the words are funniest when they're a "benign violation," which is a theory that attempts to explain how a joke works. Take, for example, the joke "A homo walks into a bar and says 'ow!'" It uses a common joke first — a person walks into a place that sells alcohol — to set upward your expectations. And then, it violates that expectation by revealing information technology'due south a different kind of bar. The "beneficial" part of this is that, beingness fictional, this violation of expectations is simply a fun exercise. If someone told y'all "My grandfather walked into a bar and he hit his head so hard that he's now in a coma," you lot might be less inclined to laugh. The same works for words. A nonsense word violates our expectations because we by and large look real words, but it'south benign considering the word doesn't practise us any harm. Random, unpronounceable words might be considered a "malign violation" because our brain is unable to read the word.

Why would that cause u.s. to laugh? One possibility is that the evolutionary ground for laughter might be that people would express mirth at a "violation" to signal that information technology was not a threat. If someone trips over a stone randomly and wasn't injured, people might express joy at the fall to show information technology was unexpected but not harmful. If you lot see the stone beforehand and expect it, it's not funny because it's not a violation. If the person is seriously injure, it's non funny considering it'south malign. Not everyone agrees that this is an all-encompassing definition for comedy, but it'southward one of the near useful ones we have today.

That nonsense words are funny at all could also suggest that the sounds of words must have some sort of pregnant. The idea that sounds have pregnant independent of discussion-meaning is chosen sound symbolism , and it's a debated topic in the linguistics world. I example  that supports sound symbolism is that there are several words relating to light that start with "gl-" that describe light in some way, like glitter, glance and gleam. In fact, lxxx percent of English words that start with "gl-" are light-related. Non only that, simply "gl-" words indicating lite in some mode has been noticed across many languages, suggesting at that place is just something about the sound of "gl-" that sounds like light to humans.

The Inherent Comedy Of The Letter of the alphabet K

If you think words like cackle, Kalamazoo and cuckoo are funny, you lot're borer into some erstwhile one-act wisdom from the days of Vaudeville. Here's a quote from Neil Simon's 1972 play The Sunshine Boys , in which a comedian gives advice to his nephew.

Fifty-vii years in this concern, y'all learn a few things. Y'all know what words are funny and which words are not funny. Alka Seltzer is funny. Yous say 'Alka Seltzer' you go a express joy … Words with 'k' in them are funny. Casey Stengel, that's a funny proper noun. Robert Taylor is non funny. Cupcake is funny. Tomato is non funny. Cookie is funny. Cucumber is funny. Car keys. Cleveland … Cleveland is funny. Maryland is not funny. Then, there's craven. Chicken is funny. Pickle is funny. Cab is funny. Cockroach is funny – not if you become 'em, only if you lot say 'em.

While folk wisdom is swell, at that place hasn't been much inquiry into the humour of the letter "thousand." Ane study was washed by researcher Richard Wiseman, using several iterations of the same joke. The bones form of the joke was this: In that location were 2 [animal species] in a field. One said: "[typical animal noise]" The other one said: "I was going to say that!"

The "best version" of this joke according to the study was the one where the animal species was "ducks" and the beast noise was "Quack." Wiseman claims that this shows that the "k" audio is indeed funniest, but this is far from a comprehensive analysis.

I thing that "yard" does have going for it is that, like the "t," "p" and "b" sounds that were prominent in the English funny word list, "k" is a hard end. When you pronounce a "k," you take to cut off the air coming out of your oral cavity. And with "k" being the finish farthest dorsum in the oral cavity, it is, in fact, the harshest. That's why "thou" is  the near common sound to appear in English swear words. Considering they make a discussion more forceful and curtailed, hard stops apparently make for practiced cussing and good comedy.

And The Funniest Give-and-take Is…

Let'southward review the qualities of a funny word that we've established with the research.

1. It should be an uncommon discussion.
2. It should ideally take some kind of humorous utilise in the native linguistic communication.
3. It should take hard stops, especially "k" sounds.
4. It should be a benign violation.

Using these criteria, there are obviously a huge number of candidates for the funniest give-and-take in the world. We could just go with "booty," but we want to brand the instance for a better option: Cucumber.

Cucumber has two "k" sounds. The "yoo" sound is unexpected. It's non that mutual outside of salad shops and produce stands. All in all, it's simply a very silly vegetable.

Sure, you could accuse us of a bias toward English words or for just picking a random word because there isn't really a single "funniest," simply allow usa nowadays our last case for the funniest word in the world:

greenwels1945.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/whats-the-funniest-word-in-the-world

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