December 4, 2018 / Modified dec 4, 2018 11:22 a.m.

No Joke, Researchers Try to Decode What Makes Words Funny

Nothing says "humor" like semantic predictors from a computational language model.

Funny words Upchuck, bubby, wriggly, yaps, giggle, guffaw, puffball and jiggly rank among the funniest English words, according to a new report.
AZPM

More than 45 years after comedian George Carlin first listed the "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television," scientists at the University of Alberta have developed their own list: the funniest words in the English language.

Upchuck, bubby, wriggly, yaps, giggle, guffaw, puffball and jiggly rank among the funniest English words, according to a paper in the "Journal of Experimental Psychology: General."

Although the authors acknowledge that humor is subjective, they found that funny words fell into two groups: funny by form — such as words with an "oo" sound — and funny by association — terms dealing with sex, bodily functions, insults, swear words, partying and animals.

The predictive program used participant rankings of nearly 5,000 English words, because nothing says "humor" like semantic predictors from a computational language model.

Arizona Science Desk
This story is from the Arizona Science Desk, a collaborative of the state's public radio stations, including NPR 89.1. Read more from the Arizona Science Desk.
By posting comments, you agree to our
AZPM encourages comments, but comments that contain profanity, unrelated information, threats, libel, defamatory statements, obscenities, pornography or that violate the law are not allowed. Comments that promote commercial products or services are not allowed. Comments in violation of this policy will be removed. Continued posting of comments that violate this policy will result in the commenter being banned from the site.

By submitting your comments, you hereby give AZPM the right to post your comments and potentially use them in any other form of media operated by this institution.
AZPM is a service of the University of Arizona and our broadcast stations are licensed to the Arizona Board of Regents who hold the trademarks for Arizona Public Media and AZPM. We respectfully acknowledge the University of Arizona is on the land and territories of Indigenous peoples.
The University of Arizona