[An] acoustics professor, who works at Salford University in Manchester, has a long-running interest in the whoopee cushion and up until recently held the record for having the largest one in the world.
Prof [Trevor] Cox, who designs concert halls, said: “The whoopee cushion has much in common with the human voice and how wind instruments work, so it is a memorable way of portraying some important science.
“This is a great way to contribute to science just by having a laugh.
“For too long, acoustic engineers have concentrate on issues such as neighbour noise and concert hall acoustics; it is about time we got to the bottom of some more important fundamental issues.
“Really what acoustics is about is understanding people’s responses to different sounds so I’ve come up with a website which samples whoopee sounds for people to go on, listen to and rate in order of funniness.
“The idea is to get people thinking about sounds. My theory – although it is unproven at this stage – is that people will laugh the most at something unexpected.
“Like with jokes – it is more funny if people don’t expect the punchline. So the most unexpected noises will probably get the most votes.”
Here’s the website, which UD found pretty disappointing. She only laughed at one, and she laughed only mildly.
In her view, you don’t laugh at the unexpected ones; you laugh at the long, elaborate ones that sound like the person’s giving a speech. The longer, the funnier.