Dad jokes are made funnier by the 'canned laughter' used by sitcoms such as Friends

Adding canned laughter to a punchline increases how funny people find a joke, a new study suggests. The research indicates that artificial laughter - often used in shows such as Alan Partridge, Friends and The Big Bang Theory - makes people rate low-quality jokes as funnier than they actually are. However, spontaneous laughter was deemed more effective than pre-planned. Scientists from University College London said the findings also held up in those diagnosed with autism. In the study, 40 groan-worthy gags were given a baseline humour rating of between one - not funny - and seven - hilarious.