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‘Funk fungus’ is a funny phrase and scientists now know why

A study looking at more than 55,000 pairs of words has found why word pairings like "gnome bone" and "spam scrotum" seem to be more amusing than their constituent parts
People laughing at a joke
Some pairs of words are funnier than others
Shutterstock / fizkes

On their own there is nothing particularly funny about the words “gnome” and “bone”, but put them together and it is a different story. Pairings like “gnome bone” seem to make people chuckle, at least according to a study that looked at the funniness of thousands of pairs of words.

at the National University of Singapore and her colleagues generated random word pairings using a list of around 5000 words previously studied for their humour or lack thereof. Then, they asked online study participants to rate each pair as either “humorous” or humourless”. Across the survey, around 600 respondents rated about 55,000 different word pairings.

According to the ratings scale, some of the funniest pairs were “playboy parrot”, “weasel penis” and “spam scrotum”. By contrast, pairs like “large small”, “schedule year” and “sell bargain” rated low on the humour scale.

Siew and the team found that words that gave people concrete images were funnier than those related to abstract ideas. For example, “turnip tramp” was rated as funnier than “life friend”.

Word pairs with similar sounding words like “funk fungus” tended to be considered funnier than pairs with varied sounds like “conserve health”. People also found pairs containing words related to sex and bodily functions more amusing.

One dominant theory of humour contends that incongruent things and situations are funny. However, Siew says her team’s research suggests humour is more than just unexpected contrasts. The funniest word pairs contain words that, while different, are connected in a surprising way, she says.

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition

Topics: Psychology