Sorry, North Dakota – You are the Least Funny State in the Country
Smiles are contagious, and if you have the perfect smile —– whether naturally or with snap-on veneers — you want every excuse to show it off. However, humor tends to be relative and often regional, so Shiny Smile Veneers set out to discover which cities in the U.S. are the funniest.
They analyzed a range of information to create a “funny score” for the 25 most populous U.S. cities and all 50 states to find out which locations have the best senses of humor. Each location was given a score out of 100 based on these factors:
- Residents per comedy club (40 points):
- Residents per comedy festival (30 points)
- Residents per comedy special host city (only for city; 20 points)
- Residents per top comedian’s home state (only for state; 20 points)
- Search volume per city/state (10 points)
Humorless in North Dakota … Sorry, North Dakotans – a study found that you are the least funny state in the country. So go ahead, add these comedic destinations to your travel plans and get ready to laugh out loud.
The Funniest:
1. Massachusetts
2. New York
3. Illinois
4. Alaska
5. Ohio
6.Indiana
7. Rhode Island
8. Vermont
9. California
10. New Jersey
The Least Funny:
1. North Dakota
2. Wyoming
3. Arkansas
4. Alabama
5. New Hampshire
6. Maine
7. Mississippi
8. Idaho
9. Delaware
10. Florida
Key Findings:
Boston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco rank as America’s funniest cities.
The funniest states are Massachusetts, New York, and Illinois.
Eddie Murphy’s Raw and Delirious are the top two nationally searched comedy specials.
Methodology
The 5 factors used for scoring the funniest cities and states are:
Residents per comedy special host city/filmed (only for city; out of 20 points)
Residents per top comedian (only for state; out of 20 points)
Residents per comedy festival (out of 30 points)
Residents per comedy club (out of 40 points)
Search volume per city/state (out of 10 points)
To find out where comedy specials were filmed, they referenced IMDB.
To understand the top comedy festivals in the U.S., they referenced Vulture.
To find out how many comedy clubs are in each state, they referenced Badslava.
When analyzing searches per capita, they compiled a list of comedy specials from several other available lists and used Google Keyword Planner to determine which cities/states search for the specials the most.