Which is funnier: “won” or “was awarded”?

Clue:  This is according to comedian Jim Lehrer

Answer:  “was awarded.”  Lehrer uttered his most famous line when asked why he stopped writing: “Political satire became obsolete when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.”  Lehrer is irked when the line is often misquoted with won.  He explains, “Won is not as funny as was awarded.”  (The answer is in black text on the black background.  Highlight it to view.)

Citation:  Gerald Nachman, Seriously Funny: The Rebel Comedians of the 1950s and 1960s (2004), p. 139.

Which Henry James novel is funnier: The Bostonians or The Princess Casamassima?

Clue:  This is according to the introduction to The Bostonians (Penguin Classics edition)

Answer:  The Bostonians  (The answer is in black text on the black background.  Highlight it to view.)

Citation:  Henry James, The Bostonians (2000), p. viii.

Which is funnier: the tricks memory plays on the mind, or Penn and Teller?

Clue:  This is according to actor Eddie Fisher.

Answer:  Penn and Teller.  “The memory sometimes plays funny tricks on the mind, not as funny as Penn and Teller, but more realistic.”  (The answer is in black text on the black background.  Highlight it to view.)

Citation:  Eddie Fisher, Been There, Done That: An Autobiography (2000), p. 393.

Which are funnier: pickles or relish?

Clue:  This is according to Jack C. Horn.

Answer:  Pickles.  (The answer is in black text on the black background.  Highlight it to view.)

Citation:  Julius Nicholas Hook, All Those Wonderful Names (1991), p. 317

What city is funnier: Madrid or Barcelona?

Clue:  This is according to literary humorist Jonathan Caws-Elwitt.

Answer:  Barcelona.  (The answer is in black text on the black background.  Highlight it to view.)

Citation:  Personal correspondence, July 31, 2007.

True or False: There is “nothing more hilarious than a bunch of mental patients bowling.”

Clue:  This is according to a poet

Answer:  True  (The answer is in black text on the black background.  Highlight it to view.)

Citation:  Gavin Dillard, Between the Cracks: The Daedalus Anthology of Kinky Verse (1997), p. 305

Which is funnier in Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life: the voluble Frenchman or the flying cow?

Clue:  This is according to a study of Arthurian legends depicted in the cinema

Answer:  the voluble Frenchman.  (The answer is in black text on the black background.  Highlight it to view.)

Citation:  Kevin J. Jarty, Cinema Arthuriana (2002), p. 140.

Which is funnier: A dead baby joke, a gun, or a flash flood in a fizzy factory?

Clue:  This is according to poet Willie Smith.

Answer:  A gun.  “Frankly, what is funnier than a gun? ... After all, it is the most surreal act.  Firing at random on a crowd.”  (The answer is in black text on the black background.  Highlight it to view.)

Citation:  Willie Smith, “Willie Get Your Gun,” Thus Spake the Corpse: An Exquisite Corpse Reader, 1988-1998 (2000), p. 228.

Which are funnier: magical creatures, angels, or the devil?

Clue:  This is according to a New Age novel

Answer:  Magical creatures.  (The answer is in black text on the black background.  Highlight it to view.)

Citation:  Josh Emmons, The Loss of Leon Meed (2005), p. 224

Complete this quotation: “The stooge is the unhappiest character in radio.  He knows that he is funnier than the ______.”

Clue:  This is according to radio comedian Fred Allen, 1947.

Answer:  Comedian.  (The answer is in black text on the black background.  Highlight it to view.)

Citation:  Alan R. Havig, Fred Allen’s Radio Comedy (1990), p. 70.

Which digit is funnier: the pinkie or the thumb?

Clue:  This is according to a guide to drawing comics

Answer:  The thumb.  (The answer is in black text on the black background.  Highlight it to view.)

Citation:  Suck School of Comic Art, Suck.com, (Nov. 7, 1997)

What is funnier than sheer nonsense strutting in an imitation of sobriety?

Clue:  This is according to The Messenger magazine, 1904

Answer:  Nothing  (The answer is in black text on the black background.  Highlight it to view.)

Citation:  The Messenger vol. 41 (1904), p. 396.

What comedy or farce is funnier than a distressful stomach?

Clue:  This is according to Roman satirist Juvenal.

Answer:  Nothing.  (The answer is in black text on the black background.  Highlight it to view.)

Citation:  Sidney George Owen, Thirteen Satires of Juvenal (1903), p. 35.

Which is funnier: Pop Art or theatre of the absurd?

Clue:  This is according to theatre expert George Riley Kernodle

Answer:  theatre of the absurd  (The answer is in black text on the black background.  Highlight it to view.)

Citation:  George Riley Kernodle, Invitation to the Theatre (1971), p. 312.

What field is funnier than statistics?

Clue:  This is according to Scribner’s Magazine

Answer:  Nothing.  “Nothing is funnier than statistics when studied from the proper angle.”  (The answer is in black text on the black background.  Highlight it to view.)

Citation:  William Lyon Phelps, Scribner’s Magazine, Vol. 74 (1923), p. 755.

What accent is funnier than Yiddish?

Clue:  This is according to a Jewish women’s anthology

Answer:  Nothing  (The answer is in black text on the black background.  Highlight it to view.)

Citation:  Irena Klepfisz, “Secular Jewish Identity,” The Tribe of Dina (1989), p. 42.

Which is funnier: comic writer P.G. Wodehouse or the story of how World War II came about?

Clue:  This is according to a political scientist

Answer:  World War II.  “The inside story is funnier than Wodehouse.”  (The answer is in black text on the black background.  Highlight it to view.)

Citation:  Curt Riess, They Were There: The Story of World War II and How it All Came About (1971), p. 286.

Which is funnier: small wheels or big wheels?

Clue:  This is according to a guide to drawing comics

Answer:  Small wheels.  (The answer is in black text on the black background.  Highlight it to view.)

Citation:  Suck School of Comic Art, Suck.com, (Nov. 7, 1997)

What is funnier than an outhouse?

Clue:  This is according to the author of a book on outhouses.

Answer:  Nothing.  (The answer is in black text on the black background.  Highlight it to view.)

Citation:  Roger L. Welsch, Outhouses (2003), p. 114.