London ? Drum roll, please an online search for the world’s funniest joke has produced a winner.

In a yearlong experiment called LaughLab, a British psychology professor asked thousands of people throughout the world to rate the humor value of a list of jokes; they could also add their favorites.

Richard Wiseman and his associates Thursday announced the round-the-world rib-tickler, which won in a tally of some 2 million votes for 40,000 jokes:

“A couple of New Jersey hunters are out in the woods when one of them falls to the ground. He doesn’t seem to be breathing, his eyes are rolled back in his head.

“The other guy whips out his cell phone and calls the emergency services. He gasps to the operator: ‘My friend is dead! What can I do?’

“The operator, in a calm, soothing voice, says: ‘Just take it easy. I can help. First, let’s make sure he’s dead.’

“There is a silence, then a shot is heard. The guy’s voice comes back on the line. He says: ‘OK, now what?'”

“Many of the jokes submitted received higher ratings from certain groups of people, but this one had real universal appeal,” said Wiseman, who has published a book based on the experiment.

Wiseman, who teaches at the University of Hertfordshire in southern England, said the research revealed that different countries preferred different types of jokes. Respondents were asked to rate jokes on a five-point scale from “not very funny” to “very funny.”

Germans were the most likely to find all types of jokes funny, while Canadians were the least amused of the 10 top responding nations.

Americans and Canadians preferred jokes invoking a strong sense of superiority either because a character looks stupid or is made to look stupid by someone else.