Today’s lesson: Writing jokes isn’t easy. Computers that write jokes aren’t funny.

A friend of ours is a comedy writer.

He always says that writing jokes isn’t easy.  We keep telling him that he would have more free time if scientists would invent a robot that could write jokes.

He insisted that there was no way a machine could write something that was as funny as what a person could write.  Web Watch tried not to point out how horrible some so-called sitcoms are, or how repetitive certain late-night talk show host monologues have become.

And then along comes the JOKE WRITING COMPUTER.  

Scientists have created a joke-writing computer program.  They broked the basics of most jokes down to a very simple equation, and the computer program will select the appropriate words and phrases from its vast dictionary of funny-sounding words to make up jokes on the fly.

Granted, 99% of the jokes aren’t very funny – but there is potential.

The process is simple:

• Select a type of joke, and choose appropriate words for that joke type
• Phrase the joke in the form of a question, supply the appropriate answer

HERE ARE SOME OF THE JOKING COMPUTER’S BETTER JOKES:

• What kind of tree is nauseated?  A sick-amore
• What do you get when you cross a frog with a road?  A main toad.
• What do you call a washing machine with a september?  An autumn-atic washer

Hey, Web Watch didn’t say these were good jokes.  Just that these were the better ones the computer came up with on its own.