Survey Results: Car/Penis Joke Funniness Collapses, Down 96% Since 1999
Researchers believe this photo is meant to have phallic connotations.
Researchers at the Center for Institutionalization of Research have published a study that says jokes and puns based on words that could apply to both cars and penises are 96% less funny than they were just a decade ago. “This alarming trend could wreak havoc on the car review industry,” said CIR spokeswoman Michelle Cox.
The CIR tested several puns on a test audience. Cox explained “For example, cars have a number of shafts, and this of course is useful for making phallic puns. We tried them all, and nobody really laughed. One guy kind of smirked, but we also caught him stealing a stapler from the office.”
At this point, financial advisers and editors are advising their clients to avoid any car/penis puns, but it may be too late. Such references are commonly jokes of last resort – used in cases where effective or actually funny writing is constrained by lack of time or talent. Cox added that such puns were still not funny even when intended to be “ironic.”
Does this mean that writers will focus on other puns in future automotive writing? Possibly not, says Tyler Hill, also on the project. “Car/Vagina joke funniness was down 57%, which reduces the opportunity for Jaguar/pussy jokes. Similarly, transmission/transsexual obfuscation was less funny by 22% than it was just a year ago.”