In a study that brings to mind an infamous Monty Python killer joke sketch, British researchers say they have identified the world's funniest joke.

They also found that Canadians are one tough crowd.

In a year-long experiment called LaughLab, British psychology professor Dr. Richard Wiseman asked millions of visitors to www.laughlab.co.uk to rate the humour value of a list of jokes.

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"I didn't want to do an experiment in humour that took itself too seriously," Dr. Wiseman said. "I wanted it to be funny. The massive response tells us that people really care about humour."

Respondents from around the globe were asked to rate jokes on a five-point scale from "not very funny" to "very funny."

The biggest knee-slapper of them all:

"A couple of New Jersey hunters are out in the woods when one of them falls to the ground. He doesn't seem to be breathing; his eyes are rolled back in his head.

The other guy whips out his cellphone and calls the emergency services. He gasps to the operator: 'My friend is dead! What can I do?'

The operator, in a calm, soothing voice, says: 'Just take it easy. I can help. First, let's make sure he's dead.'

There is a silence; then a shot is heard. The guy's voice comes back on the line. He says: 'Okay, now what?' "

"Well, that's not a bad joke," said Andrew Clark, author of Stand and Deliver: Inside Canadian Comedy . "I'd give it maybe a seven or eight out of 10. It has a nice surprise at the end. But jokes are supposed to be told live and spontaneously or by a comedian who knows how to tell jokes.

"There's something kind of weird about taking it out of its context and kind of plunking it down like that."

Researchers found Canadians were consistently the least amused of the 10 top responding nations over the course of the experiment.

"It may be that you guys just generally don't find things quite as funny," Dr. Wiseman said. "I will fully admit some of the jokes on LaughLab are not the best jokes in the world, and so maybe you've got a more discerning sense of humour."

Brent Haynes, a development and production executive for The Comedy Network, said the winning joke doesn't fit traditional Canadian humour.

"Canadians' sense of humour is very sharp," Mr. Haynes said. "It's very politically aware. That winning joke has a very broad appeal. It would be funny if you told it at a party or something."

The British, Irish, Australians and New Zealanders favoured jokes involving wordplay, while continental Europeans liked jokes with a surreal bent. Americans and Canadians preferred jokes invoking a strong sense of superiority, either because a character looks stupid or is made to look stupid by someone else.

"There's a big difference in national sense of humour," Dr. Wiseman said. "It's amazing how clear-cut those patterns were."

Pressed to tell a joke he thought Canadians might find funny, Dr. Wiseman offered the following:

"A Texan says, 'Where you from?' to a Harvard grad.

The Harvard grad says, 'I come from a place where you don't end your sentences with prepositions.'

So the Texan says, 'Okay. Where you from, jackass?' "

"That's a classic superiority joke," Dr. Wiseman said. "It is really only an extension of guy falling over a banana skin. It's this notion that we laugh at other people's misfortune, especially if they're in a position of authority."

Mr. Clark said a true classic Canadian joke doesn't exist.

"I think of Bob and Doug," Mr. Clark said, referring to the beer-guzzling MacKenzie brothers portrayed by Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis on SCTV;. "I've heard so many Canadian jokes that they've all blurred into one big eh, so to speak."

Dr. Wiseman, who teaches at the University of Hertfordshire in southern England, has written a book about the experiment and its findings. After completing a day of North American media interviews to plug the book, he was told it will not be available outside of England for at least another three months.

"I guess that makes it quite difficult to get in Canada," he said. "That's quite funny actually."