Germans are voted the least funny nationality in global humor survey

An international poll has made it official: the Germans are the most unfunny nationality in the world. Americans were voted the most hilarious over all and the Spanish were chosen as the most amusing Europeans, ahead of the Italians and the French, according to Reuters.

Badoo.com, a social networking and dating web site, asked 30,000 people in 15 countries to name both the "funniest," or the best at making people laugh, and "the least funny" nationality.

According to UPI:

"When we meet someone new, one of the first things we notice is whether they make us laugh," said Lloyd Price, Badoo's director of marketing. "Sometimes, it seems the most important thing."

Many of the survey's respondents said they saw Germans as being more focused on rationality and efficiency rather than humor, according to the Telegraph. Defenders of German comedy said the stereotype was unfair and that the structure of the language meant that jokes often don't translate easily.

According to the Daily Mail, examples of German jokes, in translation, include:

"Yesterday, I met my friend Horst at the hospital. He’d swallowed a sponge. He says it doesn’t hurt but he’s always thirsty," and "Plants grow very well if you speak kindly to them. Which is why I sometimes go into the garden and insult the weeds."

The verdict on the U.K., which came in in seventh place, was “you’re not as funny as you think," according to the Mirror. Certainly not as amusing as the Spanish, Italians, Brazilians, French or Mexicans, who all beat them on the humor scale. Price, who is British, said the international perception of the U.K. was a country whose people were uptight and reserved, the Telegraph said.

“If we’re no good at football and no good at comedy either, it’s a bit of a pie in the face for us,” Price said.