The Week Junior UK – 03 August 2019

15

Scienceand technology

3August 2019•The Week Junior

DEEP SEA PRODUCTIONS/MMT

·JONATHAN

ATA

RI·N

ATIONAL MARITIME MUSEUM,

GREENWICH,

LONDON,

·GREENWICH HOSPITAL

CO

LLECTION

·ALAMY

·REX SHUTTERSTOCK

Fake laughtermakes

evenbadjokesfunny

D

osilly jokes makeyou laugh out

loud, or groan androll your eyes?

Well, why not see if addingcanned

laughter (a pre-recorded track of people

laughing) makes the punchline funnier?

That’sexactly whatresearchers at

UniversityCollegeLondon did.

Comedy TV shows such asiCarly

andTheThundermanson Nickelodeon,

use canned laughter to encourage

viewers to laugh at the jokes. Professor

Sophie Scott and her teamwanted

to see if the same thing happened to

alive audiencewhen aprofessional

comedian made jokes aloud.

The 40 jokes, selected andranked

in order of funniness byagroup of

students, included:What’sround and

sounds likeatrumpet?Acrumpet.

What do youcall an apple thatfarts?

Afruity tooty.What do youcall aman

with aspade on his head? Doug.

These jokes werereadaloud to 72

volunteers, with two types ofrecorded

M

eet Tai–asix-year-old Labrador

retriever/German shepherd

crossbreed from Israel. Hefailed his

training asaguide dog after being

distracted bycats and other dogs, but

now he’sblazinganew trail as he

learns to followcommands issued

via remotecontrol.

The system, developed byrobotics

scientists at Ben-Gurion University

(BGU) in Israel, isamodified dog vest

with four vibrating motors on the top

and sides thatcanvibrate at different

rates. Users trigger the motors with a

wirelessradio remotecontrol, andTai

reco gniseseach different vibration as

an instruction. Sofar, he has learned

severalcommands, such as“spin”,

“down”,“to me”and“backpedal”.

“Ourresearchresults showed that

dogsresponded to these vibro-tactile

cues as well, or even better than,

vocalcommands,”said Professor Amir

Shapiro, director of BGU’srobotics

laboratory.His team believe the vest

could one day be used for search-and-

rescue dogs, military dogs, dogs that

aredeafand even ones that run away.

World’s firstradio-controlled mutt

laughter following the punchline. The

first recording waslaughter where

people had been told to laugh, while

the secondwasarecording ofreal,

spontaneous laughter.Some of the

volunteers had been diagnosed with

autism (acondition that affects how a

personcommunicates with the world

around them), but most had not.

The team found that almost

all the volunteers found the jokes

funnier after hearing them with both

types ofrecorded laughter.The real,

spontaneous laughter hadabigger

effect than the forcedlaughter.Inb oth

cases, volunteers with autism generally

found the jokes funnier than those

without.“The laughter is influencing

how funny the jokes seem andIthink

that’sbecause laughter isavery

important signal for humans. It always

means something,”said Scott.“You’re

getting information not only that it’s

funny,but that it’soktolaugh.”

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Wh

wtal

and

Laughing

it up.

Taiisavery

good dog.