Joke booth jokes

Lenny outside the Joke Booth

A person walks into a booth...

Our joke booth toured the nation, collecting people's favourite gags. What did we learn from the British joke survey?

What makes you laugh?

We're still collecting jokes - to add your punchline to our research, submit your joke online.

We've chosen 20 jokes that give a sense of the range of people and types of jokes that were told in the joke booth. They're not the 'best' jokes as that would involve a very personal judgement, and that's a matter of taste. Rather we've gone for jokes that illustrate what we found in our survey, raise some questions and hopefully provoke some thoughts on British jokes today.

There are no hard and fast rules about what people found funny or offensive. The fine line between a joke and insult is determined by the social relations between the joke teller and receiver, the butt of the joke. But the tone in which the joke is told, what other jokes have also just been told, and the social context are also vital in shaping responses to jokes. There are also many disagreements about the meaning and functions of jokes and we'll explore some of these.

There are a few jokes that may cause offence to some of you. Of course, this is not our intention. Jokes play with the forbidden and the taboo and because they usually have a butt – they put down someone or something. They necessarily include ideas or images that are risqué. But it's very important to separate the joke from the joke teller. Joke tellers don't necessarily hold the views or agree with the ideas expressed in a joke, and we really want to emphasise that point.

Jokes are just a bit of fun. They are disposable, dispensable and trivial. They are also very important. When clusters of jokes and the way they spread are studied, they can tell us something about the society we live in, what makes us laugh, and how we communicate. We hope the jokes and the commentary will give you food for thought.