Исходный текст	Перевод	Трансформация
Here's a date...	Вот еще одна дата...	Добавление
Fry-Day (Friday)	Жарница (Пятница)	Игра слов
...rise of stress	...повышением уровня стресса...	Смысловое добавление
...it is one of the most mysterious aspects...	...он остается самым загадочным аспектом...	Опущение
...who has spent nearly two decades studying laughter,...	…, который почти 20 лет изучает природу смеха...	Опущение; Добавление
She rattles off	На одном дыхании она выговаривает...	Смысловое добавление
...aged between two and 12...	...в возрасте от 2 до 12 лет...	Лексическая компенсация
What can I do?	Что мне делать?	Грамматическая компенсация
What's WRONG with me, Doctor?	Что со мной НЕ ТАК, Доктор?	Грамматическая компенсация
…ad columns...	...в колонках объявлений о знакомстве...	Лексическая компенсация

Объясняется использование выше перечисленных трансформаций следующим образом: во-первых, отсутствие грамматических конструкций языка оригинала в языке перевода. Во-вторых, способность доступно передать информацию языка оригинала, разделяя сложные предложения исходного текста на несколько простых. В-третьих, возможность передать содержание текста, сохраняя адекватность и эквивалентность.

Кроме того, перевод данных статей требовал использования таких приемов, как транслитерация, транскрипция и калькирование. Транскрипция использовалась для перевода имен собственных:

Provine	Провайн
Bayley	Эмма Бэйли
Random House	Рэндом Хаус
Geoff	Джефф
Dave	Дэйв

Прием транслитерации использовался также при переводе имен и фамилий:

Madan Kataria	Мадан Катария
Marina Davila-Ross	Марина Давила-Росс
Gurpal Gosall	Гурпаль Госалль
Anandappa	Анандаппа
Barry	Барри

При переводе учебных заведений, названий проектов, исследований и некоторых физиологических явлений использовался прием калькирования и полукальки:

University of Maryland	Мэрилендский университет
Laughter: A Scientific Investigation	Смех: Научное Исследование
«ha-ha» sound	«ха-ха»-звук
LaughLab	Лаборатория Смеха
Giggleometer	Смехмометр

Заключение

Подводя итоги проделанной работы, следует отметить, что перевод текстов научно-популярного подстиля имеет свои характерные особенности, как и любой другой текст, относящийся к иному подстилю, стилю и жанру.

В ходе работы мы пришли к выводу, что тексты научно-популярной тематики не допускают использования вольного перевода, так как содержат конкретные понятия, объяснения и описания исследований. Исключается и возможность дословного перевода, так как происходит нарушение смысла передаваемой информации, происходит искажение грамматического строя предложений, а также лексических значений. Избежать подобных нарушений помогает использование переводческих трансформаций. Научно-популярные тексты имеют особую лексику и грамматику. Однако не требуют от читателя особых знаний в той области, которой посвящена работа. Статьи предназначены для широко круга читателей разной возрастной категории. Кроме того тексты такой тематики могут иметь различный состав информации, не ограничиваясь только когнитивной типом.

Необходимо также сделать выводы из работы по конкретным текстам статей, представленных в курсовой работе. Цель -- обосновать использование адекватной и частично дословной переводческих стратегий при переводе текстов «The funny business of laughter» и «LaughLab. The scientific search of the world's funniest joke. Final report» -- была достигнута. Поставленные во введении задачи были выполнены.

Статьи «The funny business of laughter» и «LaughLab. The scientific search of the world's funniest joke. Final report» не обладают сложной научной терминологией, так как рассчитаны на массового читателя. Нет необходимости в учете гендерного фактора. Кроме того особенностью данных статей является различный состав информации. Помимо когнитивной, она выполняет также эстетическую и оперативную функции. При переводе данных статей использовалась адекватная переводческая стратегия с элементами дословного перевода отдельных словосочетаний, там где это было возможно и уместно. Тип перевода -- адекватный с элементами дословного. Уровень эквивалентности по Комиссарову В. Н. -- третий и четвертый (семантический и грамматический). Важной составляющей перевода являлось использование различных переводческих трансформаций -- грамматические, лексические и комплексные, которые позволили в полной мере передать смысл содержания текстов с языка оригинала на язык перевода. Кроме того, при переводе встретились случаи, когда было необходимо использовать такие переводческие приемы, как калькирование, транслитерация и транскрипция. Преимущественно они требовались при переводе имен собственных. Следовательно, использовалась транформационная модель перевода.

В ходе работы пришлось прибегнуть к помощи различных словарей, как русскоязычных, так и иностранных. Также для выполнения подробного предперводческого анализа и лингво-переводческого комментария было необходимо ознакомиться с работами выдающихся исследователей в области перевода -- Коммисарова В. Н. Алексеевой И. С. Щвейцера А. Д. и других, а также обратиться к некоторым иностранным источникам.

Список использованной литературы

1. Алексеева И.С. Введение в переводоведение: Учебное пособие для студентов филологических и лингвистических факультетов высших учебных заведений/ И.С. Алексеева. -- Изд. 4-е, стер. -- СПб.: Факультет филологии и искусств СПбГУ; М.: Издательский центр «Академия», 2010. -- 368 с.

2. Аполлова М.А. Specific English (Грамматические трудности перевода): Учебное пособие/ М.А. Аполлова. -- М.: Международные отношения, 1977. -- 136с.

3. Брандес М.П. Предпереводческий анализ текста: Учебное пособие для институтов и факультетов иностранных языков/ М.П. Брандес, В.И. Провоторов. -- Изд. 3-е, стер. -- М.: НВИ-ТЕЗАУРУС, 2001. -- 224с.

4. Клишин А.И. Практика перевода английских текстов: Пособие для всех/ А.И. Клишин. -- СПБ.: Издательский дом «Андра», 2003. -- 96с.

5. Комиссаров В.Н. Теория перевода (лингвистические аспекты): Учебное пособие для институтов и факультетов иностранных языков/ В.Н. Комиссаров. -- М.: Издательство «Высшая школа», 1999. -- 253с.

6. Комиссаров В.Н. Современное переводоведение: Учебное пособие/ В.Н. Комиссаров. -- Изд. 2-е, испр. -- М.: Р. Валент, 2011. -- 408с.

7. Левицкая Т.Р. Теория и практика перевода с английского языка на русский: Учебное пособие/ Т.Р. Левицкая, А.М. Фитерман -- М.: Издательство литературы на иностранных языках, 1963. -- 264с.

8. Миньяр-Белоручев Р.К. Теория и методы перевода: Учебное пособие для студентов и преподавателей языковых факультетов и вузов/ Р.К. Миньяр-Белоручев. -- М.: Московский Лицей, 1996. -- 208с.

9. Паршин. А.В. Теория и практика перевода: Учебное пособие/ А.В. Паршин. -- СПБ.: СГУ, 2008. -- 203с.

10. Федоров А.В. Основы общей теории перевода (лингвистические проблемы): Учеб пособие для институтов и факультетов иностранных языков/ А.В. Федоров. -- М.: Издательство «Филология Три», 2002. -- 187с.

11. Казакова. Т.А. Теория перевода (лингвистические аспекты): [Электронный ресурс]. -- Режим доступа: http://samlib.ru/w/wagapow_a_s/kazakova.shtml. -- (Дата обращения: 25.04.2015)

12. Онлайн-словарь Slovar-Vocab. -- Режим доступа: http://slovar-vocab.com. -- (Дата обращения: 26.03.2015)

13. Словарь медицинских терминов: [Электронный ресурс]. -- Режим доступа: http://medicinskie-terminy.slovaronline.com. -- (Дата обращения: 26.03.2015)

14. Словарь синонимов английского языка Thesaurus: [Электронный ресурс]. -- Режим доступа: http://www.thesaurus.com. -- (Дата обращения: 16.04.2015)

15. Швейцер А.Д. Теория перевода: [Электронный ресурс]. -- Режим доступа: http://samlib.ru/w/wagapow_a_s/shveiz-tr.shtml. -- (Дата обращения: 24.04.2015)

16. Электронный словарь Мультитран. -- Режим доступа: http://www.multitran.ru/c/m.exe?a=1&SHL=2. -- (Дата обращения: 21.04.2015)

17. Электронный словарь ABBYYLingvo. -- Режим доступа: http://www.lingvo-online.ru/ru. -- (Дата обращения: 21.04.2015)

18. Электронный словарь Urban Dictionary. -- Режим доступа: http://www.urbandictionary.com. -- (Дата обращения: 15.04.2015)

19. Bayley E. BBC Focus // E. Bayley. The funny bussiness of laughter. -- Режим доступа: http://www.sciencefocus.com. -- (Дата обращения: 12.02.2015)

20. Wiseman R. LaughLab. // R. Wiseman. The scientific search of the world's funniest joke. Final report. -- Режим доступа: http://laughlab.co.uk. -- (Дата обращения: 11.02.2015)

Приложение

THE FUNNY BUSINESS OF LAUGHTER

Chortling, sniggering, guffawing, tittering - it has so many names and yet it is one of the most mysterious aspects of human behaviour. Emma Bayley investigates a very peculiar habit.

"Call yourself an evolutionary biologist and you don't even know what laughter's for - now that is funny!"

Here's a date for your diary: Sunday 4th May, World Laughter Day. Described by its founder, Dr Madan Kataria, as “a very auspicious day for the whole planet”, it will be marked by groups of people the world over getting together for a good giggle.

Kataria, who introduced this annual event 10 years ago, says we need more laughter in our lives to combat the global rise of stress, loneliness and depression. But that's daft isn't it? Surely that strange yelping sound that we emit periodically can't be the answer to such pressing problems.

If an alien were to land on our planet and take a stroll among a crowd of earthlings, it would notice that the low hum of speech was regularly interjected by much louder exhalations and that these outbreaths were chopped into `ha-ha' fragments. It might wonder what purpose this strange habit served. If we ask ourselves what triggers a good chortle, the obvious answer is that it is a response to something we find funny. But one scientist, Robert Provine, who has spent nearly two decades studying laughter, says that humour has surprisingly little to do with it. Instead, it seems to lie at the root of such lofty questions as the perception of self and the evolution of speech, language and social behaviour.

Provine, a neuroscientist at the University of Maryland in the US and author of Laughter: A Scientific Investigation, realised early on in his research that you cannot capture real-life laughter in the lab because as soon as you place it under scrutiny, it vanishes. So, instead, he gathered his data by hanging around groups of people in public places, eavesdropping on their conversations, surreptitiously noting when they laughed.

HAVING AN EPISODE

Over the course of a year he collected 1200 laugh episodes - an episode being defined as the comment immediately preceding the laughter and the laughter itself - which he sorted by speaker (the person talking), audience (the person being addressed), gender and pre-laugh comment.His analysis of this data revealed three important facts about laughter. Firstly, that it is all about relationships. Secondly, that it occurs during phrase breaks in speech. And thirdly, that it is not consciously controlled. “It's a message we send to other people - it practically disappears when we're by ourselves,” he says. “And it's not a choice. Ask someone to laugh and they'll either try to fake a laugh or say they can't laugh on command.”With these conclusions, Provine has challenged traditional models of laughter - which he believes put too much emphasis on humour - and also what people generally assume to be true about it. For example, we tend to think that we know why we have just laughed. “You might say, `I laughed because I was embarrassed', or `I laughed because it was funny',” says Provine, “but these are all posthoc rationalisations. They're not the reason that you laughed.

Perhaps most surprising of all is Provine's finding that only 15-20 per cent of everyday comments preceding laughter are remotely humorous. “Laughter usually follows,” he says. “Simply observe it in your own life and you'll see that most laughter is like the laugh track of the world's worst sitcom.”

The fact that we don't have conscious control over when we laugh suggests that it must be deeply embedded in our nature, programmed by our genes rather than learned from our environment. Indeed, studies of the play behaviour of great apes suggest that having a good giggle has been around a lot longer than we have.

Chimpanzees laugh while they are having play fights although the sound is quite different to that made by humans due to their different vocal apparatus. Instead of chopping a single exhalation into the `ha-ha' sound that characterises our laughter, chimps laughter sounds like panting. A recent study of orangutans reveals a deeper similarity with humans. A team of researchers watched the play behaviour of 25 individuals aged between two and 12 at four primate centres around the world.

“In particular we analysed the facial expressions that they produce during social play,” says Dr Marina Davila-Ross of the University of Portsmouth. “It's a relaxed expression where they open their mouth and show the upper row of teeth. It is very similar to the human expression of laughter.”

The team discovered that when one orangutan displayed this expression, its playmate would often produce the same expression less than half a second later. The speed with which this mimicry occurred suggested that the expressions were involuntary - in other words the laughter was contagious. “In humans, mimicking is a mechanism that enables us to understand our social partner better, and this helps us to cooperate and form social bonds. It is clear now that it evolved prior to humankind,” says Davila-Ross.

Prof Richard Wiseman, psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire and organiser of LaughLab (an internet-based experiment into the psychology of humour that involved over 350,000 people from 70 countries), agrees that laughter is contagious because it enables us to bond more strongly with each other. “We are social animals, and so it is a very helpful communication tool if we can feel what those around us are feeling. Laughter is contagious because it helps us communicate and empathise with others,” he says.

The fact that we share laughter with great apes suggests that it emerged in our ancestors sometime before the split with chimpanzees six million years ago. But it may have evolved even earlier than that. Research conducted at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, US, found that even rats produce chirps comparable to laughter when playing or when tickled, and the common ancestor of rats and humans lived 75 million years ago.

It is hard to say for sure whether rat `laughter' shares the same evolutionary roots as human laughter, but the fact that it is triggered by tickling suggests a strong link because, as Provine puts it, “tickle is the most ancient and reliable stimulus of laughter”. One of the earliest ways in which a parent and child laugh and play together is through tickling.

For chimpanzees it is just as common and remains an important social interaction throughout their lives. Chimpanzees who have been taught sign language regularly discuss tickling amongst themselves. Laughter and tickling go together - the former seemingly a reflex reaction to the latter, comparable to the reflex reaction you experience when a hammer strikes your knee.

Studies of tickle (the preferred scientific term), although thin on the ground, should therefore be able to tell us a lot more about laughter. For example, we all know that we cannot make ourselves laugh through tickle. But could a machine tickle us?

THE TICKLE MACHINE

One team of researchers at the University of California at San Diego built a mechanical tickling machine, complete with robotic hand and wiggling fingers, to look at this very question. They discovered that their subjects laughed just as much in response to the machine as to the experimenter. This tells us that a successful tickle doesn't depend on another person, but merely on another entity, something that's not you.

Provine thinks that this finding goes to the heart of an even more profound question than that of laughter. “By considering this not-youness, we discover the criteria for self,” he explains. “We're getting to grips with a neurological mechanism for what's us and what's other. A tickle reveals the neurological mechanism for sociality.”

Discovering that laughter can be used as a tool to explore other aspects of our behaviour has, for Provine, been one of the most rewarding aspects of his research. Perhaps his most important insight concerns the evolution of speech, a critical event in our history that occurred sometime after we split from chimpanzees.

Provine believes that the evolution of speech and bipedal locomotion are causally related. He came to this conclusion after analysing the difference between chimp and human laughter. “It occurred to me that, basically, the human `ha-ha' came about as a result of the evolution of breath control that chimps lack,” he explains. We hold our breath to lift heavy objects and quadrupedal animals must do the same when moving in order to support their body when their four limbs hit the ground. When our ancestors stood up on two feet, the thorax was freed of these mechanical demands, making it possible for speech to evolve.

“People talk about bipedality being important for carrying infants or manipulating objects in front of the body but something that hadn't been considered was that walking upright on two legs was necessary for the evolution of speech,” concludes Provine.

By breaking away from traditional models of laughter as a mechanism simply linked to humour, and discovering its links to deep elements of human nature such as speech and sociality, Provine has reinforced just how ancient laughter is. It has been around for as long as rough-and-tumble play, an activity that you see in mammals, from rats and squirrels to chimpanzees and humans, and has most likely evolved from the laboured breathing or panting that accompanies such play.

Ultimately, it is a response to feelings of social connectedness - you don't see any sign of it in reptiles simply because they are not social in the way that mammals are. Like many things that feel good - eating or sex, to name a couple - it is a behaviour that goes to the core of who we are as animals. So, yes, we probably should do it more to increase our sense of well-being. Maybe World Laughter Day isn't such a daft idea after all.

Emma Bayley is Focus's contributing editor

ASK THE EXPERT

Robert Provine, professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of Maryland, US

Why do we laugh?  Laughter is about relationships. We laugh much more often when we're around other people than when we're alone. Media is considered to be a social stimulus, so when you laugh watching a TV programme you're laughing at the people on the box. But when you're by yourself, not reading, not watching TV, laughter is less frequent.

Why do the urges to laugh and cry sometimes come at the same time?  Laughter and crying are closely related neurologically and evolutionarily. They both evolved as signals to change the behaviour of other people. We're pretty good at inhibiting them but it's hard to produce either on command. They also occur together pathologically - one of the most common symptoms of psychopathology and neuropathology is inappropriate laughter and crying. An important difference between laughter and crying, however, is that laughter is highly social, whereas crying is not. A solitary person can cry but rarely laughs.

Why do women laugh more when they're talking to men? Women laugh most at men that they find interesting or attractive. And men like women who laugh in their presence. This is reflected in personal ad columns. Women tend to request a good sense of humour, and men tend to advertise a good sense of humour. But laughter is not planned - it's an honest signal and it's hard to fake. A woman doesn't think I want this man to like me so I'm going to laugh a lot. It just happens. If you learn how to read laughter, you can get insights into what people really think about each other.

How does humour relate to laughter? Humour involves strong linguistic and cognitive components that are superimposed on the more ancient laughter structure. Probably the most ancient joke and the only one you can tell to both babies and chimpanzees is a feigned tickle where you act like you're going to tickle and say things like, “I'm going to get you”, and then don't tickle. Humour is a more cognitive level of play that evolved more recently. If you look at rough-and-tumble play, that's where it came from. Human adults don't typically run around chasing and tickling each other. They have conversational play, which is similar in that it still has this give-and-take in it.

LAUGH YOURSELF FITTER

The health benefits of having a good chortle It has long been recognised that laughter and humour are good for you. Laughter makes us feel good - that's why we pay comedians. After a really good belly laugh, when asked how they feel, most people say: “I feel a lot more relaxed.” A number of studies have emerged in recent years that show specific ways in which laughter has remarkably beneficial effects on our health.

Endorphins Just the expectation of laughter boosts production of beta-endorphins, the body's natural painkiller, by 27 per cent

Cardiovascular A good laugh produces an increase in heart rate that is equivalent to 10 minutes on a rowing machine or 15 minutes on an exercise bike

Stress hormones Laughter lowers stress hormones, such as cortisol, produced by the adrenal glands, which sit on top of the kidneys

Breast milk Laughter improves breast milk's health effect - breast-fed babies with eczema experienced milder symptoms if their mothers laughed hours before feeding them

Blood vessels Laughter is linked to the healthy function of blood vessels. It causes the inner lining of blood vessels - the endothelium - to dilate or expand in order to increase blood flow

Immune system Laughter also increases immune-system antibodies, such as immunoglobulin A, which helps to fight upper respiratory disease

FIVE TOP TIPS TO HELP YOU LAUGH MORE

Hang out with more people The more people you are with, the more laughter there will be around you and the more likely you are to join in with a chuckle or two.

Increase interpersonal contact Increasing face-to-face and eye-to-eye contact with your fellow group members increases the chance that you'll have a laugh.

Create a casual atmosphere Worry and anxiety kill laughter, so light a few candles, put on some music and settle down with some friends for a good giggle.

Be ready to laugh You may not be able to produce a convincing chortle voluntarily, but you can lower your laughter threshold simply by expecting to laugh more.

Tickle It's the most ancient laugh stimulus. But be warned, the pleasure of tickling depends on who's doing it - best not to tickle strangers

LAUGHLAB THE SCIENTIFIC SEARCH FOR THE WORLD'S FUNNIEST JOKE FINAL REPORT INTRODUCTION

In September 2001 we embarked on one of the world's largest, and most unusual, scientific experiments. The project aimed to find the world's funniest joke and answer important questions about the psychology of humour. LaughLab was carried out as part of Science Year in the UK and was the largest scientific study ever into humour. For the past twelve months we have asked people from all around the world to submit their favourite jokes and judge how funny other people's jokes were by using the special " Giggleometer " below. LaughLab captured the public's imagination - we received over 40,000 jokes and almost 2 million ratings. In fact, the experiment has been such a success that it has recently been awarded a Guinness World Record and the LaughLab book, containing all of our results and top gags, was published on 3rd October by Random House. All of the data collected throughout the year has been stored on the LaughLab computers. In December 2001 we released some of our preliminary results - we have now analysed all of our data and are delighted to announce our final findings.

THE WINNING JOKE

After much careful scrutiny, we are proud to announce our winning joke. This joke received higher ratings than any other gag. Drum roll….. A couple of New Jersey hunters are out in the woods when one of them falls to the ground. He doesn't seem to be breathing, his eyes are rolled back in his head. The other guy whips out his cell phone and calls the emergency services. He gasps to the operator: “My friend is dead! What can I do?” The operator, in a calm soothing voice says: “Just take it easy. I can help. First, let's make sure he's dead.” There is a silence, then a shot is heard. The guy's voice comes back on the line. He says: “OK, now what?” This winning joke was submitted by Gurpal Gosall, a 31 year old psychiatrist from Manchester in the UK. He told LaughLab that: I like the joke as it makes people feel better, because it reminds them that there is always someone out there who is doing something more stupid than themselves. So why did this joke perform so well? Dr Richard Wiseman, the psychologist behind the Laughlab project, said: This joke is interesting because it works across many different countries, appeals to men and women, and young and old alike. Many of the jokes submitted received higher ratings from certain groups of people, but this one had real universal appeal. Also, we find jokes funny for lots of different reasons - they sometimes make us feel superior to others, reduce the emotional impact of anxiety-provoking situations, or surprise us because of some kind of incongruity. The hunters joke contains all three elements - we feel superior to the stupid hunter, realise the incongruity of him misunderstanding the operator and the joke helps us to laugh about our concerns about our own mortality."

IN SECOND PLACE

In second place came the joke that was leading the pack when we announced our preliminary results in December: Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson go on a camping trip. After a good dinner and a bottle of wine, they retire for the night, and go to sleep. Some hours later, Holmes wakes up and nudges his faithful friend. "Watson, look up at the sky and tell me what you see." "I see millions and millions of stars, Holmes" replies Watson. "And what do you deduce from that?" Watson ponders for a minute. "Well, astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Astrologically, I observe that Saturn is in Leo. Horologically, I deduce that the time is approximately a quarter past three. Meteorologically, I suspect that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. Theologically, I can see that God is all powerful, and that we are a small and insignificant part of the universe... What does it tell you, Holmes?" Holmes is silent for a moment. "Watson, you idiot!" he says. "Someone has stolen our tent!" This joke was submtted by Geoff Anandappa, from Blackpool in Britain. We recently told Geoff that his joke had been piped to the post by the hunters joke - here is his reaction: I can't believe I got knocked out in the final round! I could've been a contender... I want a re-match, and I warn you, this time I'm going to fight dirty! Did you hear the one about the actress and the bishop?

LEAGUE TABLE OF HUMOUR

We asked everyone participating in LaughLab to tell us which country they were from. We analysed the data from the ten countries that rated the highest number of jokes. The following `league table' lists the countries, in the order of how funny they found the jokes: Most funny: Germany France Denmark UK Australia The Republic of Ireland Belgium USA New Zealand Canada Fascinating differences also emerged between nations in terms of the jokes they found funny. People from The Republic of Ireland, the UK, Australia and New Zealand expressed a strong preference for jokes involving word plays, such as: Patient: “Doctor, I've got a strawberry stuck up my bum.” Doctor: “I've got some cream for that.” Americans and Canadians much preferred gags where there was a sense of superiority - either because a person looked stupid, or was made to look stupid by another person, such as: Texan: “Where are you from?” Harvard grad: “I come from a place where we do not end our sentences with prepositions.” Texan: “Okay - where are you from, jackass?” Finally, many European countries, such as France, Denmark and Belgium, liked jokes that were somewhat surreal, such as: An Alsatian went to a telegram office, took out a blank form and wrote: “Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof.” The clerk examined the paper and politely told the dog: “There are only nine words here. You could send another `Woof' for the same price.” “But,” the dog replied, “that would make no sense at all.” These European countries also enjoyed jokes that involved making light of topics that often make us feel anxious, such as death, illness, and marriage. For example: A patient says: “Doctor, last night I made a Freudian slip, I was having dinner with my mother-in-law and wanted to say: “Could you please pass the butter.” But instead I said: “You silly cow, you have completely ruined my life”.” Interestingly, Germany was the exception. Germans did not express a strong preference for any type of joke - this may well explain why they came first in our league table of funniness - they do not have any strong preferences and so tend to find a wide spectrum of jokes funny. Dr Richard Wiseman commented: These results are really interesting - it suggests that people from different parts of the world have fundamentally different senses of humour. Humour is vital to communication and the more we understand about how people's culture and background affect their sense of humour, the more we will be able to communicate effectively.

TOP JOKES IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES

Here are some of the top jokes in different countries: Top joke in UK A woman gets on a bus with her baby. The bus driver says: “That's the ugliest baby that I've ever seen. Ugh!” The woman goes to the rear of the bus and sits down, fuming. She says to a man next to her: “The driver just insulted me!” The man says: “You go right up there and tell him off - go ahead, I'll hold your monkey for you.” Top joke in USA The American data proved to be somewhat strange. Dave Barry is a well known humourist whose columns are syndicated in many American newspapers. In January 2002 he kindly devoted an entire column to LaughLab. At the end of the column he urged readers to submit jokes that simply ended with the punch line: `There's a weasel chomping on my privates.' However, ignoring the weasels, the top American joke was… A man and a friend are playing golf one day at their local golf course. One of the guys is about to chip onto the green when he sees a long funeral procession on the road next to the course. He stops in mid-swing, takes off his golf cap, closes his eyes, and bows down in prayer. His friend says: “Wow, that is the most thoughtful and touching thing I have ever seen. You truly are a kind man.” The man then replies: “Yeah, well we were married 35 years.” Top joke in Canada When NASA first started sending up astronauts, they quickly discovered that ballpoint pens would not work in zero gravity. To combat the problem, NASA scientists spent a decade and $12 billion to develop a pen that writes in zero gravity, upside down, underwater, on almost any surface including glass and at temperatures ranging from below freezing to 300 C. The Russians used a pencil. Top joke in Australia This woman rushed to see her doctor, looking very much worried and all strung out. She rattles off: “Doctor, take a look at me. When I woke up this morning, I looked at myself in the mirror and saw my hair all wiry and frazzled up, my skin was all wrinkled and pasty, my eyes were bloodshot and bugging out, and I had this corpse-like look on my face! What's WRONG with me, Doctor!?” The doctor looks her over for a couple of minutes, then calmly says: “Well, I can tell you that there ain't nothing wrong with your eyesight....” Top joke in Belgium Why do ducks have webbed feet? To stamp out fires. Why do elephants have flat feet? To stamp out burning ducks. Top joke in Germany A general noticed one of his soldiers behaving oddly. The soldier would pick up any piece of paper he found, frown and say: “That's not it” and put it down again. This went on for some time, until the general arranged to have the soldier psychologically tested. The psychologist concluded that the soldier was deranged, and wrote out his discharge from the army. The soldier picked it up, smiled and said: “That's it.”

LAUGHLAB DISCOVERS THE BRAIN'S FUNNYBONE

At the end of the LaughLab project, we carried out a brain scan (using a technique known as Magnetic Resonance Imaging) of people listening to some of our best jokes. The results are amazing. They show that there is a very precise area of the brain involved in understanding why a joke is funny. As shown in the image below, this area is mainly located towards the back of the frontal lobes. Interestingly, this fits in with other research suggesting that people who have damaged this part of the brain often lose their sense of humour. But why should this section of the brain be so important to our sense of humour? Most jokes work because they surprise us - they set us thinking in one direction, and then we hear the punchline and realise that there is a completely different way of seeing the situation. For example, take the old joke: Two fish in a tank. One turns to the other and says `Do you know how to drive this?' The first line makes us think the fish are in a fish tank - then the second makes us realise that they actually are in an army tank! The part of the brain shown in the image above (called the Prefrontal cortex) plays a vital role in the type of flexible thinking needed to understand a joke. It makes sense of the punchline and produces a strong sense of surprise.

JOKE COMPLEXITY AND THE BRAIN

We also asked people who took part in LaughLab to answer questions that involve making various estimates, such as: How many words are there on one page of a typical paperback novel? A) Under 500 B) 500-600 C) 600-700 D) 700-800 E) Over 800 Research suggests that people who are good at this type of question (the correct answer is under 500) tend to have good frontal lobe activation, whilst people who make incorrect estimates do not. Interestingly, people who tended to answer this question correctly tended to prefer relatively complex jokes, such as… A scientist and a philosopher were being chased by a hungry lion. The scientist made some quick calculations, he said "its no good trying to outrun it, its catching up". The philosopher kept a little ahead and replied " I am not trying to outrun the lion, I am trying to out run you"! Whereas people who answered incorrectly, tended to like more straightforward jokes, such as… Which day of the week do fish hate?....... Fry-Day. This sort of data will give us important insights into the way in which our brains affect our sense of humour.

THE UK REGIONS

We also asked participants from the UK to tell us whether they were from Wales, Scotland, England or Northern Ireland. Our data has revealed that the Welsh found the jokes funniest, followed by the English, then people from Northern Ireland and then the Scots. Here are the top jokes from the regions. Top joke in England Two weasels are sitting on a bar stool. One starts to insult the other one. He screams, "I slept with your mother!" The bar gets quiet as everyone listens to see what the other weasel will do. The first again yells, "I SLEPT WITH YOUR MOTHER!" The other says, "Go home dad you're drunk." Top joke in Wales A turtle was walking down an alley in New York when he was mugged by a gang of snails. A police detective came to investigate and asked the turtle if he could explain what happened. The turtle looked at the detective with a confused look on his face and replied "I don't know, it all happened so fast." Top joke in Scotland I want to die peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather. Not screaming in terror like his passengers Top joke in Northern Ireland A doctor says to his patient, 'I have bad news and worse news'. 'Oh dear, what's the bad news?' asks the patient. The doctor replies, 'You only have 24 hours to live'. That's terrible', said the patient. 'How can the news possibly be worse?' The doctor replies, 'I've been trying to contact you since yesterday'.

FUN FACTS FROM LAUGHLAB

Just for fun, we had the LaughLab computer count the number of words in every joke that people submitted. According to the data, jokes containing one hundred and three words are the funniest. Interestingly, the winning `hunters' joke is 102 words long - almost the perfect length for a joke! Many of the jokes submitted contained reference to animals. We found that jokes mentioning ducks were seen as funnier than other jokes. And so it's official - ducks are the funniest comedy animals. Perhaps it's because of their beaks, or webbed feet, or odd shape. Regardless, the implication is clear - if you are going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck. Our computers recorded the date and time that each person from the UK rated the jokes in LaughLab. Careful analysis of the data revealed that people found the jokes funniest on the 7th October at 6.03 in the evening. Perhaps we have scientifically discovered the funniest moment of the year.

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