‘Joking computer’ to give stand up comedians run for their money!

LONDON - Stand-up comedians beware: The ‘joking computer’ is here - a computer program that creates pun-based gags created at the University of Aberdeen and is sure to give you a run for your money.

Debenhams, the department store, has commissioned the computer science department at the university to come up with jokes for next year’s crackers. It can tell awfully terrible jokes like “What kind of tree is nauseated? A sick-amore.”

The software, known as The Joking Computer, has the capacity to build millions of jokes using a large dictionary of words and simple language rules.

“We were pleased Debenhams appreciated our computer-generated jokes and hope any future collaboration will help bring our work to a wider audience,” the Scotsman quoted , Dr Judith Masthoff, senior lecturer in Aberdeen’s Department of Computing Science, as saying.

“The aim of The Joking Computer is to help children and adults alike to explore language in a unique and fun way.”

“The riddle-style funnies the new software creates are ideal for Christmas crackers, and we hope to work with the University of Aberdeen to include them in ours in the future,” said Debenhams spokesman, Ed Watson.

However, stand-up comic Janey Godley said, “Communication and humour are surely one of the few things that we, as humans, do best. So now we have computers writing the gags for crackers. Maybe they have already taken over the coalition and Cameron and Clegg are just a couple of robots.” (ANI)