Saw this on the Yahoo! News page.
So, if I visit the U.K., these are the people I’ll want to hang out with:
So, what’s the deal BritDopers? Anyone seen evidence of this? Why so glum?
Who gets paid to produce these ‘statistics’. Load of bunkum, lots of joking and laughter in my office, and not an 18-24 yr old female from Manchester in sight.
Not sure how you can gather statistics on how many minutes a day people laugh so I would take it with a big pinch of salt. Personally I was wetting myself for half an hour watching Little Britain last night so I guess I will have bumped the average by a small amount.
Its called a hangover.
How could a people with such silly words as “bunkum” not be laughing on a very regular basis?
Yeah, I thought it was a strange article. No details on how info was gather. No comparison to any similar studies with other cultures.
I think I’ll use the word “bunkum” as often as possible today, I bet people will laugh. 
Back in the 50s there wasn’t such a variety of humorous stuff available in the UK. Remember that comedy rationing, introduced in 1940 as an emergency measure, only ended in 1955. We were allowed a half hour of comedy on the wireless a week - any of Tony Hancock, The Goon Show, Ted Ray, Take It From Here or Much Binding In The Marsh - plus the occasional US import like Life With the Lyons. Most of the 18 minutes’ laughter a week referred to above would have come either from the wireless or during one’s annual week-long holiday in Blackpool, watching Frank Randle at the South Pier Theatre.
Ah, those were the days, eh?
You planned your laughter then–what with the post war rationing and all, a good laugh was hard to come by, so you wanted to be ready for it and enjoy it as much as you could.
I remember I had a neighbor who saved her guffaws for Sunday after tea. Some said it was disrespectful, her wetting herself on the Lord’s day, but I never saw the harm.
Nowadays, people laugh any old time they want to! Imagine that! Some say it’s freeing and open and all that rot, but I say stuff and nonsense! A real knee slapper shouldn’t happen off the cuff-you might not get your money’s worth. Planning and deliberate exection is the best way, I say.
It’s good to see that they are keeping track again. Better find my ration book o’ laughs…
I have no rational explanation for why this just made me burst out laughing.
I was giggling at the lastest Richard Dawkins book last night and here (at work) we just had a good chuckle at an Oracle Forms error(!), so I’d say the general merriment threshold was quite low around here.
As for big guffaws. Well there was the Russian Roulette on BBC Radio 4 on Monday instead of the breakfast time news, that made for a jolly start to the week.
FWIW never received my official Ministry of Humour Laughter Leaflet so I don’t know if I’m holding my end up, statistically.
Bunkum, pure bunkum…and a rather pathetic marketing campaign being presented as ‘news’, to boot.
Re. young female Mancunians - they’re just all pissed.
blink
slow dawn of realization
This is one of those moments where it’s clear that Britain and America truly are two countries seperated by a common language.
Maybe they’re drunk and angry…and if so, watch out!
(sorry, American here, but couldn’t resist getting in on the fun).