Spike Milligan has been credited with creating the World's funniest joke.

Professor Richard Wiseman of the University of Hertfordshire carried out the biggest internet experiment to discover the world's most popular joke in 2001. It took him twelve months to compile the submitted 40,000 jokes, to be voted by 300,000 people from all around the world.

The result was a joke about two hunters in the woods of New Jersey. One collapses and the other calls the emergency services for help. The operator tells the hunter to remain calm and, firstly, to establish if the collapsed man is dead.

The operator hears a gunshot then the hunter comes back on the line and asks, 'Okay? What now?'

Since then Professor Wiseman has been trying to track the roots of this joke to no avail until he saw an Australian documentary that aired a rare clip of The Goons first television broadcast in 1951.

Michael Bentine: I just came in and found him lying on the carpet there.
Peter Sellers: Oh, is he dead?
Bentine: I think so.
Sellers: Hadn't you better make sure?
Bentine: Alright. Just a minute.
Sound of two gun shots.
Bentine: He's dead.

With Milligan having died in 2002 of liver failure (the last of The Goons), Professor Wiseman then went to Milligan's daughter in an attempt to verify his authorship. She said that she was certain that he had been responsible for it.

Professor Wiseman said, "Doing the experiment I heard so many jokes and many were quite similar, but what is nice about this one is it is totally unexpected. What is also interesting is the fact it does not rely too much on word play or puns, so the joke will not be lost in translation into other languages."

*His first being the epitaph on his tombstone - 'I told you I was ill.'