A new study has decided what Britain's funniest sitcom is.
The research, by OnBuy.com, asked 125 volunteers to binge-watch the top 10 funniest British sitcoms chosen by comedy TV lovers. Based on the total laughter duration for each show (measured by decibels), they were able to rank the funniest sitcoms by how many times they laughed.
The C4 sitcom The IT Crowd came in at number one. The episodes (25) and their duration (24 minutes) are enough to make us laugh for an average of 1 minute and 44 seconds per hour. The results also revealed that season 2 is the one that had the most cackles. Participants described the show as having “the finest British dry humour” and “clever writing”. IT Crowd star Katherine Parkinson is in the current series of Taskmaster on C4. It is written by Graham Linehan.
The critically acclaimed Peep Show ranks second place. With subtle and clever jokes, the cult classic gives us 1 minute and 36 seconds of laughs per hour. The season that makes us laugh the most is 4, whilst the least funny is season 5. Binge-watching Mark and Jez’s witty monologues for the 9 seasons will make you laugh for 43 minutes and 48 seconds overall.
In third place is The Inbetweeners. Just one hour of Will, Simon, Jay, and Neil will have you laughing for an average of 1 minute and 22 seconds. It’s hard not to compare the foursome’s hilarious young life with the adolescence we had, and sometimes we see some characters in ourselves or others. The episode “Night Out in London” is deemed the funniest, and the episode “The Field Trip”, the least funny.
This Country is the sitcom that participants laughed at the least. Being a BAFTA award-winning show, often referred to as the modern version of The Office, wasn’t enough to make us cackle: the average laughs-per-hour is just 7 seconds.
The volunteers reported that “the goofy humour is hilarious, but not enough for constant streams of laughter”. Season 2 is regarded as the funniest, and season 3 the one with the lowest number of sniggers.
Lee Chambers, Psychologist and Wellbeing Consultant, explained the reasons we love watching sitcoms and the benefits of laughter: “Given the underlying anxiety caused by a global pandemic, and the stress of uncertain futures, laughter is even more important. Laughter can trigger the release of endorphins, improving your mood, and can diffuse anger and frustration, making it a healthy way to express the negative emotions we will all be feeling in this challenging time. It is infectious and like a hug in these times of decreased physical contact.
Sitcoms give us optimism and hope and permission to be imperfect. They give us characters to connect with, laugh with, and commiserate with. And in the end, life is always good, and this is liberating. It also takes less concentration to watch familiar sitcoms, and even re-watching them breeds affection as it's easier on the mind.”
Editor's note: some might suggest that measuring laughter is not the only way of deciding on the funniest sitcom.
Methodology:
- To achieve the data, OnBuy.com surveyed 2,325 fans and asked them to name the top 10 funniest British sitcoms of all time.
- From the results of the survey, OnBuy.com selected the top 10 funniest sitcoms and asked 125 volunteers to wear headphones whilst watching all episodes from each of the 10 sitcoms for the first time.
- The participants were also asked to leave a high-quality microphone connected to a computer program that measures decibels close to them.
- OnBuy.com was able to reveal and rank the funniest sitcoms based on the total laughter duration for each sitcom.
- A laugh was counted as one where the volume reached at least 60dB. The duration measured the total time (seconds) that the laughter was sustained for across all viewings.
- According to EarQ, the average decibels of laughter is 60-65 dB.
