London: Ever wondered why bad jokes are easier to remember than the good ones? Well, scientists claim to have finally unravelled the reason.
A new study has revealed that the best jokes are the hardest to remember as they work by subverting usual thought patterns, making them less memorable but funnier. Moreover, a final twist and surprise in the joke makes people remember the punch line, but forget the run-up to the gag.
But, on the contrary, the structure and punch lines of clich d gags are so predictable that they make the jokes easy to recall, the study found.
"What makes a joke successful is also what makes it difficult to remember. The punch line involves an unexpected turn," explained the study's author professor Robert Provine from Maryland University.
"If someone tells you a list of flowers, like roses, daffodils, petunias and brick. That was unexpected and funny. You remember 'brick', but not probably the correct list of flowers," added professor Provine.
Professor Provine said that he believed good jokes "work in the opposite way to a poem or piece of music". "It's easier to follow a song because it has rhyme and rhythm. I hear a good joke but usually I can't remember all of it."
Professor Daniel Schacter of Harvard University and author of 'The Seven Sins of Memory' said that good jokes often rely on subtle nuances and timings and these are things, which we find difficult to accurately recall.
"We humans are better at remembering the general meaning or gist of things; and this is why we can remember anecdotes. With jokes we have to remember details like nuance and timing," he quoted in The Daily Telegraph.
Agreed Ricky Gervais, a British comedian: "Jokes work like a magician's tricks. When the punch line comes, you just gasp at that and you forget where the magician put his hand before or what he did before."