Why the best jokes are so hard to remember

Scientists have found that the most successful gags work by subverting the listener’s usual thought patterns, making them inherently less memorable. By contrast, clichéd jokes are easier to remember because their structure and punch line are so predictable…

Ricky Gervais, star of The Office, agreed that good jokes were hard to remember: “Jokes work like a magician’s tricks. When the punch line comes, you just gasp at that and you forget where the magician put his hand before or what he did before.”