The Funniest Joke in the World

The Funniest Joke in the World
Series	1
Episode	Whither Canada?
Previous	Dancing Soldiers and a Falling Pig
And Now For Something Completely Different
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Next	Killer Cars

_{For the eponymous joke, see Killer Joke. The Monty Python Wiki will not be held responsible for any injury or fatality this action may cause.}

"The Funniest Joke in the World" is the most frequent title used to refer to a Monty Python's Flying Circus comedy sketch, also known by two other phrases that appear within it, "joke warfare" and "killer joke". The premise of the sketch is fatal hilarity: the joke is simply so funny that anyone who reads or hears it promptly dies laughing. It also appears in And Now for Something Completely Different.

Synopsis

During World War II, Ernest Scribbler, a British joke writer (Michael Palin), creates the funniest joke in the world and then dies laughing. Ernest Scribbler's mother (Eric Idle) enters the room shortly thereafter and finds her son dead. Horrified, she carefully takes the crumpled paper from his hand, and reads it, believing it to be a suicide note. She then begins laughing hysterically, falls over the desk and dies. A Scotland Yard's crack inspector (Graham Chapman) retrieves the joke, but despite somber music and the chanting of laments by other officers to create a depressing mood, reads it and also dies laughing.

It is finally given over to the British Army, and after careful testing, the joke is translated into German, to succeed the great pre-war joke, apparently seen held aloft by Neville Chamberlain (in fact the PM returning to the UK with the Munich Agreement). Each word of the joke is translated by a different person — ostensibly because seeing too much of the joke would prove fatal. The narrator (Chapman) adds that one translator accidentally caught a glimpse of two words and was hospitalised for weeks.

The translation is given to British soldiers who do not speak German, because not understanding what they are saying is the only way to survive reading the joke aloud. The joke is used for the first time on 8 July 1944 in the Ardennes by the soldiers, who read the German version aloud "Wenn ist das Nunstück git und Slotermeyer? Ja! Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt gersput!" on the battlefield, and the German soldiers simply fall over dead from laughter.

A British soldier (Palin) is captured and forced to tell the joke to the Germans. However, as hearing the joke proves deadly, his captors (John Cleese and Chapman) die laughing and he escapes. The Germans work to produce an equally deadly joke; two Gestapo officers in charge of the "killer joke" effort (Chapman and Terry Jones) are seen shooting scientists who bring in jokes that aren't funny.

The Germans soon formulate a counter-joke, which is translated into English and played over the radio to London, but with no success. (The joke is: "There were zwei [two] peanuts walking down der strasse [street]. Und one was assaulted... peanut!") .

The joke is finally laid to rest when "peace broke out" at the end of the war. All countries agree to a Joke Warfare ban at a "special session of the Geneva convention". The joke is under a monument bearing the inscription "To the Unknown Joke" (as compared with the British Unknown Warrior or the American Unknown Soldier).

And Now For Something Completely Different

The scenes with the policeman outside Scribbler's house, the POW, the "assaulted peanut" counter joke, and the burial of the joke are cut.

Music

• "In the News", performed by the Band of the Royal Netherlands Navy conducted by Captain G. Neuwland, from a 78rpm disc issued around 1951.
• "Funeral March", arranged by Mayhew Lake and performed by a military band ensemble, for a BBC LP.
• "Deutschland Über Alles" from the 1966 LP Hitler's Inferno - In Words, In Music 1932-1945 - Marching Songs of Nazi Germany.
• "Rule, Britannia!" performed by the Band of the Irish Guards conducted by Captain C.H. Jaeger.

Broadcast

The sketch appeared in the first episode of the television show Monty Python's Flying Circus, which was titled "Whither Canada?". 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 game of Monty Python's The Meaning of Life. The premise had previously been presented in the "Li'l Abner" comic strip.

Trivia

• This sketch was written by Michael Palin and Terry Jones.
• Other shows have paid homage to "The Funniest Joke in the World". For example, in the second Omake Theater skit of Blue Seed, Living Room Theatre, the TAC create a "Funniest Joke" to wipe out their enemies, the Aragami, and bring about a quick end of the series.
• If the German version of the joke is typed into Google Translate, it produces, "[FATAL ERROR]".
• This is the Colonel’s first appearance.
• The clip of Hitler telling his "My dog's got no nose" joke was taken from Triumph des Willens ("Triumph of the Will"), a propaganda film of the 1934 Nazi Party Congress in Nuremberg, directed by Leni Riefenstahl. In the clip, Hitler is addressing the Deutsche Arbeitsfront (German Labor Front). What he actually said translates thusly:
  • "My dog's got no nose!" — "And furthermore, no longer will it be the case in Germany..." ("Insbesondere keiner mehr in Deutschland leben wird...")
  • "How does he smell?" — "We are the Reich's young manhood!" ("Wir sind des Reiches junge Manschaft!")
  • "Awful!" — "...your school." ("...Eure Schule.")
• The sketch was to feature a speech by Winston Churchill (not filmed but in the rehearsal script).
• The Ministry of War scene was filmed at Ham House, Petersham on July 8th 1969, the same day as the "Johann Gambolputty" interview scene.
• The "casualties" tent scene was filmed at Shell Bay near Bournemouth, the same day as the Genghis Khan scene for "It's Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart" and the "Donkey Rides" link for How to Recognise Different Types of Trees From Quite a Long Way Away.
• The scenes involving Earnest Scribbler's house were filmed on Ullswater Road, Barnes on July 16th 1969.
• The Salisbury Plain trials and woodland battle scenes were filmed on July 18th 1969, at Pirbright Army Camp.
• The tomb scene was filmed at Green Meadows, near Saxmundham on August 22nd 1969.
• The footage of Hitler at the Nuremberg rally was provided by Associated British Pathé newsreel film No 139.
• The Neville Chamberlain footage was from Visnews No 1450.
• The scene with the British couple listening to the radio was pre-recorded before the main studio recording to minimise costume changes.
• There was originally a scene (to have come after the couple listening to the radio) involving an interviewer (Cleese) being recounted stories of Germans dropping jokes by an elderly man (Chapman), who was to have said " "Yes, I remember the German jokes coming over. Most of them were harmless enough but there were some people who found them funny. I remember the lady at the sweetshop - she copped one in January. There was a very good rude one in March, which caused a lot of trouble in the Wandsworth Area.". This was filmed but cut in the editing stages.