Heard the one about the funniest joke in the world? If not, then read on

Heard the one about the funniest joke in the world? It took a psychiatrist to find it, two million people in 70 countries to test it and the punchline relies on a man shooting dead his dying friend.

Quite what it reveals about the human psyche is a matter of debate but scientists insisted yesterday that the hunters gag is guaranteed to make more people laugh across more cultures than any other.

For those wondering whether it works, here it is: "Two hunters are out in the woods when one of them collapses. He doesn't seem to be breathing and his eyes are glazed. The other guy whips out his phone and calls the emergency services. He gasps: 'My friend is dead! What can I do?'

"The operator says: 'Calm down. I can help. First, let's make sure he's dead.' There is a silence, then a shot is heard. Back on the phone, the guy says: 'OK, now what?'." The joke was found to be either funny or very funny by 65 per cent of those who heard it, according to the British Association for the Advancement of Science.

The wisecrack was selected from 40,000 gags submitted to LaughLab, a government-funded project to widen interest in scientific research.

Each joke was submitted for rating by visitors to a website set up for 12 months to collate entries and discern which witticisms best suited each nation or culture. Some two million ratings were received.

Dr Richard Wiseman, the psychologist behind the £40,000 project, said the winning joke, submitted by a Manchester psychiatrist, had combined the three key elements which make most people laugh. Speaking as the winner was unveiled in Covent Garden, central London, Dr Wiseman said: "We find jokes funny for lots of different reasons – feeling superior, reducing anxiety or surprise. 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 laugh at concerns about our own mortality."

The survey found a wide variation in what amuses different nations. The British, Irish, Australians and New Zealanders prefer word plays; for example: "Patient: 'Doctor, I've got a strawberry up my bum'. Doctor: 'I've got some cream for that'."

Americans and Canadians like something that makes them feel superior while most European countries prefer a touch of the surreal.

The Germans consistently gave the highest ratings to jokes, which led researchers to conclude witheringly that they laugh at anything. It was only in Japan where jokes failed to cross borders. A typical Japanese gag, according to LaughLab, was: "Why is the nose in the middle of your face? Because it is your centre."

But those expecting humour to be entirely a matter of individuality will be disappointed.

The study found that, whatever the subject matter, the human brain reacts in exactly the same way when a joke is found to be funny.

Scans conducted while a subject was told a joke found that two areas of the brain were stimulated – the temporal lobe, which deals with memory and checks whether the joke has been heard before, and the prefrontal cortex, which allows flexible thinking and understanding of the punchline.

But humour experts said the nature of the winning joke showed the bulk of humanity had not advanced much.

Dr Mike Lowis from University College Northampton, said: "It is sad that this joke won. It relies on the notions of cruelty and taboo that form one of the main parts of humour, but the idea is that we should have ceased to be so amused by these things."