Jimmy Carr has been found to be the funniest comedian in Britain, according to a completely dispassionate study performed using data and science.
Of course, comedy is completely subjective, and some might even find Jimmy Carr to be the furthest thing from funny, but this isn't a study based in that logic, it's based in raw empirical fact.
Laughs per hour, as it happens.
So, the basis of the study was to take an hour of comedy from a whole host of British comedians and then see how much of that hour the audience spent laughing away.
You'd have to say that particular metric favours Carr's quickfire style, in which he tells a load of one liner jokes really quickly.
Advert
Put that up against - for example - Billy Connolly's longer form storytelling style, and you'd say that whilst Carr might have the audience laughing for longer, Connolly would get the heartier laughter.
You'd have to imagine even Jimmy Carr wouldn't argue that he's funnier than Billy Connolly.
Anyway, Carr was found to have the best laugh-per-hour figure, keeping audiences chortling for four minutes and 46 seconds out of every 60 minutes.
Sitting right behind him on four minutes and 38 seconds was Bolton's finest, Peter Kay.
Again, his observational style - as well as his obvious mastery - makes this particular metric pretty well suited to him.
In at number three was Jack Whitehall with three minutes and 59 seconds, and fourth was Michael McIntyre at three minutes 53.
The study was performed by online store OnBuy.com, who asked 2,563 people to choose their favourite British comedians, before having 120 volunteers watch a random selection of those chosen whilst a microphone monitored every laugh of 60 decibels or more.
The results were taken from home-watching, rather than a live environment.
Interestingly enough, the only non-male comedians to feature on the list were Sarah Millican and gender-fluid Eddie Izzard.
However, it's Carr who emerged at the top of the pile. He'll no doubt be delighted to be declared the funniest British comedian of all time by science.
Here's the top 20 in full:
1. Jimmy Carr: 4min 46 sec
2. Peter Kay: 4min 38sec
3. Jack Whitehall: 3min 59 sec
4. Michael McIntyre: 3min 53sec
5. Ed Gamble: 3min 44sec
6. Billy Connolly: 3min 37sec
7. Jason Manford: 3min 20 sec
8. Romesh Ranganathan: 3min 11sec
9. Bill Bailey: 3min 7sec
10. Ricky Gervais: 3min 1sec
11. Frankie Boyle: 2min 58sec
12. James Acaster: 2min 49sec
13. Nish Kumar: 2min 35sec
14: Russell Howard 2min 22sec
15. Eddie Izzard: 2min 18 sec
16. Tom Allen: 2min 17sec
17: Kevin Bridges 2min 14sec
18: John Bishop: 2min 5sec
19. Sarah Millican: 2min 4sec
20: Rhod Gilbert: 1min 50sec
Featured Image Credit: PATopics: Science, TV and Film, Celebrity, Comedy, UK Entertainment, Weird
