The Funniest Video Ever on YouTube?
Well, I think that this is proof-positive that the programmers and algorithm writers who control many aspects of our lives--from our search engines, to our smart phones, to our GPS devices--may be on a plane of intelligence far above the rest of us, but they still haven't cracked the code of what makes humans human. Will they ever? Of course, this has been a topic fiercely debated ever since the rise of the concept of "artificial intelligence," but I've always been a skeptic. It seems to me that you can't quantify that many vagaries and mysteries of the human experience, especially our emotions.
But the programmers at Google are trying their best, regardless. A team of researchers there recently tried to quantify comedy--what makes us laugh. By tallying up the number of "LOLs" and other humor indicators that appear in the comments section of YouTube videos, the researchers came up with a list of the so-called funniest videos on the web.
Here's Google on how the researchers devised the algorithm:
- In a previous post, we talked about quantification of musical talent using machine learning on acoustic features forYouTube Music Slam. We wondered if we could do the same for funny videos, i.e. answer questions such as: is a video funny, how funny do viewers think it is, and why is it funny? We noticed a few audiovisual patterns across comedy videos on YouTube, such as shaky camera motion or audible laughter, which we can automatically detect. While content-based features worked well for music, identifying humor based on just such features is AI-Complete. Humor preference is subjective, perhaps even more so than musical taste.
- . . . We captured the uploader’s belief in the funniness of their video via features based on title, description and tags. Viewers’ reactions, in the form of comments, further validate a video’s comedic value. To this end we computed more text features based on words associated with amusement in comments. These included (a) sounds associated with laughter such as hahaha, with culture-dependent variants such as hehehe, jajaja, kekeke, (b) web acronyms such as lol, lmao, rofl, (c) funny and synonyms of funny, and (d) emoticons such as :), ;-), xP. We then trained classifiers to identify funny videos and then tell us why they are funny by categorizing them into genres such as “funny pets”, “spoofs or parodies”, “standup”, “pranks”, and “funny commercials”.
- Next we needed an algorithm to rank these funny videos by comedic potential, e.g. is “Charlie bit my finger” funnier than “David after dentist”? Raw viewcount on its own is insufficient as a ranking metric since it is biased by video age and exposure. We noticed that viewers emphasize their reaction to funny videos in several ways: e.g. capitalization (LOL), elongation (loooooool), repetition (lolololol), exclamation (lolllll!!!!!), and combinations thereof. If a user uses an “loooooool” vs an “loool”, does it mean they were more amused? We designed features to quantify the degree of emphasis on words associated with amusement in viewer comments.
The top results were voted on by the public, and here's what came in first place (see below).
Underwhelming, right? I don't know about you, but I really, really wanted to laugh--I was making a good-faith effort at being amused---but there was nothing. No giggles. No snicker. Not even a smile. And, for the record, I have a very low comedy bar, meaning that it doesn't take much to make me laugh. So if this is the funniest video on the web--if this is what human humor is defined as by our programmers---then I am, in the immortal words of Downton Abbey's O'Brien, a banana.
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Oct '10
Re: The Funniest Video Ever on YouTube?
If stupidity counts as funny....
Jun '11
Re: The Funniest Video Ever on YouTube?
Uh... I must be a banana.
Aug '10
Re: The Funniest Video Ever on YouTube?
Didn't even snicker.
May '10
Re: The Funniest Video Ever on YouTube?
I could only get half way through it.
Mar '11
Re: The Funniest Video Ever on YouTube?
LOL HA HA HA!!!
right
Jul '10
Re: The Funniest Video Ever on YouTube?
Pratfalls have to appear spontaneous to be funny. That wasn't remotely funny. If you want funny, go find some clips of Herve Villechaize singing on 70s talk shows.
Oct '11
Re: The Funniest Video Ever on YouTube?
Lame.
Mar '11
Re: The Funniest Video Ever on YouTube?
When the fan hits the . . .
Oct '11
Re: The Funniest Video Ever on YouTube?
Did you say, "I am a banana"?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnStKXZcqc0
May '10
Re: The Funniest Video Ever on YouTube?
Using acronym counts for lol, lmao, and rofl is one of the worst methods I can think of for determining how funny the audience thought a video was. Only a certain type of person comments on Youtube videos to begin with, and only a certain type of Youtube commenter wastes his and everyone else's time by posting "lol" as a comment. "LOL" doesn't even necessarily mean they thought something was funny; it might express derision or mockery of the video's stupidity or the subject's misfortune.
Sso we shouldn't be surprised if we don't find their sense of humor aligning with ours.
Aug '10
Re: The Funniest Video Ever on YouTube?
Looks like the same guys who developed the Google news search alogrithm did the research here. Except for the insertion of left-leaning story development, they have inserted deadpan narrative with stupid human tricks. Where's Bob Saget ?
Fail
Aug '10
Re: The Funniest Video Ever on YouTube?
This reminds me immensely of "climate change scientists" who put so much blind faith in their own computer models that their brains simply cancel out any real-world evidence that contradicts their beloved algorithm.
Google just make themselves look silly by posting this video as "the funniest". Instead, they should have taken a second look at their algorithm, since it's clearly faulty.
Jul '11
Re: The Funniest Video Ever on YouTube?
Epic Fail.
Jun '10
Re: The Funniest Video Ever on YouTube?
This video was obviously an insightful commentary on what happens to your brain on YouTube.
Apr '11
Re: The Funniest Video Ever on YouTube?
Trying to objectively calculate based on what is entirely subjective reactions is sheer folly.
Jan '11
Re: The Funniest Video Ever on YouTube?
Our responses to this video and reactions to its description as funny only increase the value of Google's wealth of data. Someday, soon I think, someone or something will learn how to mine all those search terms, comments and clicks and make some huge leaps to understanding our personalities and moods. I only hope they don't "hide the decline" once they form a theory.
Re: The Funniest Video Ever on YouTube?
I flinched. Awful.
Off the top of my head, three YouTube videos that have made me laugh:
Apr '11
Re: The Funniest Video Ever on YouTube?
YouTube videos that make me laugh:
Anything "Simon's Cat"
Apr '11
Re: The Funniest Video Ever on YouTube?
I don't know what I see that everyone else doesn't, but this gets funnier to me every time I watch it.
Re: The Funniest Video Ever on YouTube?
Since we are all really an extended family here on Ricochet, I'll make a confession: I laughed. It's either a guy-stuck-at-13-year-old-humor thing (which, sadly, applies to me) or brain damage (which, equally sadly, probably also applies to me), but I snorted. Not a full-blown belly laugh, probably because I knew what was coming, but a definite snort.