As Mark Twain observed, a German joke is no laughing matter.
Sadly for the nation that brought us everything from Beethoven to lederhosen, it seems that everyone agrees.
Germany has been voted the least funny country in the world in an international poll.
Examples of German jokes 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".
The survey of 30,000 people was conducted in 15 countries. The top ten least witty countries were:
1 Germany
2 Russia
3 Turkey
4 Britain
5 America
6 France
7 Poland
8 Belgium
9 Holland
10 Canada