This joke is the Least Common Denominator of world humour. It just shows that people across the planet have VERY different senses of humour. Personally, I have tried translating French jokes in English, only to ridicule myself (I know what you think...) So, since then I have been trying to develop split humour personalities...

I need to correct myself, this joke is in fact supposed to be the largest common denominator... Gee, either the methodology is really wrong, or folks around the planet really don't share much together...

OR, the Chinese find it incredibly funny.

An indirect expression of anti-Americanism? Plays up our stereotypes pretty well.

I must admit to finding the joke funny but then I would.

A favorite Larry Carson cartoon shows a flying-saucer with suitably alien-looking creatures visible in the cockpit. Strapped on the saucer in front of the cockpit is a SUV with human skeletons leaning out the front windows. Strapped on the front bonnet of the SUV is the skeleton of a deer.

Few overseas observers of the UK can have escaped noticing press reports of the continuing lively public debate here over whether the government should enact legislation banning fox hunting. Now, as a townie by habit and inclination I have never seen a fox hunt so don't feel adequately informed to comment.

The strange thing is that in this very urban part of London, there are lots of foxes. It is not so much a question of the foxes being tame as their having tamed the resident human population. Foxes amble across heavily trafficked roads and the traffic slows or stops to let them pass. A week or so back in the early hours I was awakened by strange screeching sounds so went out to the road to investigate and saw, 50 yards away down the road, three young foxes engaged head-to-head in an altercation - or discourse, for all I know. On noticing their privacy had been invaded, they strolled off into bushes the other side of the road. Two years back on returning home mid-afternoon from shopping, there was a fox fast asleep on my small back lawn. The local motto seems to be: Live and let live.

I took the joke home, studied it well, delivered it in my best joke form to my wife. She stared at me. Asked her if she wanted to read the runners-up for herself. She declined. This is the woman who told me the "which part of the body goes to heaven first?" joke, the 13-martini joke, and many more that will, nay must, go unmentioned. The joke just ain't funny. The punch line is visible from a mile away.

K

Is it relevant to note that the Big Mac is the world's most popular sandwich?

I think so. I'm afraid to ask myself what must be the world's most popular movie or television show... Who knows, the world's most popular musician may still be... Elvis! %-)

Of course part of a joke being funny is not knowing what happens, and now that this has been declared the "funniest joke in the world" everyone is going to hear it, thereby negating whatever suprise factor it may have had. In fact any announce funniest joke is going to be self-negating by definition.

Enjoy Bob Briant's fox stories.... There is an interesting study on the "self"-regulation of fox populations that was just completed in England:

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/08/science/life/08FOX.html

Can not imagine hunting fozes for "sport." Yuch.

It's a clever joke, not the best, but what do you expect from an online poll? Most cultures can relate to hunting, so it's not surprising this came across to a broad population.

>I'm afraid to ask myself what must be the world's most popular movie or television show...

I don't know if this is still true, but in the late nineties I think Baywatch was the most widely watched television show in the world.