The Funniest Joke in The World - References in Popular Culture

References in Popular Culture

The "Killer Joke" is discussed in Robert J. Sawyer's 1998 science fiction novel Factoring Humanity, set in 2017. The novel opens with the 1994 on-the-job suicide of Joshua Huneker, a young astronomer operating a National Research Council of Canada's radio telescope in Algonquin Provincial Park. Huneker left two notes - the first a suicide note and the second reading "Alien radio message—unveil new technology." Huneker encrypted the alien message with a 512-digit number using RSA, knowing that it would be decades before computer technology could decode it. The protagonists theorize what the significance of the alien message could have been.

"But what kind of message would lead a man to kill himself, but first hide it from the rest of humanity?" asked Kyle.
Heather was quiet for a moment, then: "'Heaven exists, it's absolute paradise, and everyone gets in.'"
"Why keep that a secret?"
"So that the human race would go on. If everyone knew that was true, we'd all commit suicide to get there sooner, and Homo sapiens would become extinct overnight."

Kyle proposes an alternative:

"There was an old Monty Python skit about a joke so funny you'd literally die laughing if you heard it. It was used as an Allied weapon in World War Two. It had to be translated from English to German by teams, each person translating only one word at a time. One guy accidentally saw two words and ended up in intensive care." He paused. "I don't know. If somebody handed you a joke and said it was that funny, wouldn't you have to look and see for yourself?"

The subject arises again in the Aurora Award-winning novel Blind Lake (2003) by Robert Charles Wilson. Two characters, Marguerite and Chris, find themselves "locked down" in a scientific facility in Minnesota without explanation from the authorities:

"Why would they do that to us, Chris? There's nothing dangerous here. Nothing's changed since the day before the lockdown. What are they afraid of?"
He smiled humorlessly. "The joke."
"What joke?"
"There's an old comedy routine - I forget where I saw it. It's World War Two and the Brits come up with the ultimate weapon. A joke so funny you die laughing if you hear it. The joke is translated word-by-word into phonetic German. Guys on the front lines are yelling it through bullhorns, and the Nazi troops drop dead in the trenches."
"Okay ... so?"
"It's the original information virus. An idea or an image capable of driving someone mad. Maybe that's what the world is afraid of."