Knock knock, no one's there. Study finds scientists' jokes mostly fall flat

"Two-thirds of the attempts at humour during these talks fell flat, drawing either polite chuckles or no laughter at all. Almost one-quarter of attempted jokes were judged as a "moderate success", eliciting audible laughter from around half the audience. Only 9% prompted most or all of the attendees to laugh enthusiastically."

""Humour is a skill that scientists don't necessarily prioritize," says Victoria Stout, a co-author of the study. "I think they should. More people will want to collaborate with you if you put yourself out there. It will be memorable.""

"Roughly 40% of the talks monitored were humourless, eliminating the risk of failed jokes, but probably raising the risk of bored listeners. The work is published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B."

A survey of over 500 presentations at biology meetings reveals that humor attempts largely underperform. Two-thirds of jokes drew polite chuckles or no laughter, while only 9% prompted enthusiastic laughter from most attendees. Nearly one-quarter achieved moderate success with audible laughter from about half the audience. Forty-two percent of attempted jokes were spontaneous remarks about presentation glitches rather than prepared material. Roughly 40% of talks contained no humor attempts at all. Researchers suggest humor is an undervalued skill among scientists that could enhance collaboration and memorability of presentations.

Read at Nature