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Inside UC Berkeley's High Tech Joke Recommender 102

Posted by CmdrTaco from the much-better-than-my-bone-rolling-system dept.
alphadogg writes "Every day is something like April Fools' Day at the University of California, Berkeley joke recommendation site, dubbed Jester. Now on Version 4.0, the site tosses visitors a handful of jokes to rate on a scale of "less funny" to "more funny." It then recommends jokes based on the user's taste (or lack thereof), dynamically making recommendations based on the user's most recent ratings. Jester's more than a joke jukebox though. Underlying it is a Berkeley-patented "collaborative filtering algorithm" dubbed Eigentaste , now on Version 5.0. The more people who use the system and rate jokes, the more data Berkeley researchers have to advance their understanding of recommendation systems, like those used by Amazon.com and other Web sites."
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Inside UC Berkeley's High Tech Joke Recommender More

Inside UC Berkeley's High Tech Joke Recommender

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  • Link to the actual thing... (Score:5, Informative)

    by adpsimpson ( 956630 ) on Monday March 31, 2008 @11:50AM (#22922494)

    For those who want to actually see it, not a blog about it - Jester [berkeley.edu]

  • Other uses? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Hatta ( 162192 ) on Monday March 31, 2008 @11:53AM (#22922524) Journal
    Could this algorithm be applied to porn?

  • Funny onces (Score:3, Insightful)

    by nlawalker ( 804108 ) on Monday March 31, 2008 @11:56AM (#22922558)
    These are funny once, Mike, not funny always.

    "I don't understand, Man."

  • I for one... (Score:1, Redundant)

    by Leuf ( 918654 )
    would be filtered out completely by this, but I welcome our new humor overlords anyway.

  • Rate on intrinsic humor (Score:5, Insightful)

    by kahei ( 466208 ) on Monday March 31, 2008 @11:58AM (#22922572) Homepage
    It'd be really interesting to use a site like this to try and determine how people's sense of humor (and response to jokes, which isn't the same thing) clusters.

    It's hard in this case though because the jokes are so old and tend to fit closely to five or six templates. Because this means they have very little impact, I tried rating them based on how funny I thought they would be if they were new to me and expressed a bit more concisely, which I found a complicated exercise.

    If this thing could be loaded with new jokes, or at least varied jokes, it'd be very interesting to observe the results. for example, would we find that people who like gender-stereotype jokes also like lawyer jokes? Would we find that people who like engineering jokes also like pun-based jokes?

    Alas, without a system for users to submit their own jokes I don't think there's enough data in the system to get useful results out of it.

    P.S. Shakespeare walks into a pub. And the barman says, "Sorry, you're bard."

    P.P.S. So this bear walks into a bar, and the bear says "I'd like a......... beer, please." And the barman says "What's with the big pause?"

    P.P.P.S. So this woman walks into a bar, and asks for a double entendre. So the barman gives her one.

    • You're right about there being so many types of jokes. I think it would take many more than 8 jokes to narrow down what I truly find funniest ... but you nailed it down with your jokes at the end!
    • Q- How many feminists does it take to screw in a light bulb?

      A- THAT'S NOT FUNNY ASSHOLE! I'LL CUT YOUR DICK OFF YOU SON OF A BITCH!!!!!

      Darnn slashdot's lameness filter. Darn it to heck! Bad filter, bad bad bad (hits lameness filter on nose with rolled up newspaper). Yes you stupid humorless algorythm, caps is like yelling. That was the point, you stupid bot.

      Speaking of funny, yesterday's Dilbert [dilbert.com] was one that you have to be a nerd to appreciate.

    • Re:Rate on intrinsic humor (Score:4, Informative)

      by FailedTheTuringTest ( 937776 ) on Monday March 31, 2008 @01:50PM (#22923674)

      Alas, without a system for users to submit their own jokes I don't think there's enough data in the system to get useful results out of it.

      Ask and ye shall receive (if the site recovers from slashdotting): http://eigentaste.berkeley.edu/user/suggestjoke.php [berkeley.edu]

    • So this gay, incestuous bear walks into a bar and lays his pa on the table...

      So this guy walks into a bar arm-in-arm with a grizzly bear, and the guy says, "hey, bartender, do you serve lawyers here?" The bartender looks at him and at the grizzly and says "uh, yeah, sure we serve lawyers here." "Good," says the guy, "I'll have a beer. And the grizzly will have a lawyer."

      So this one-armed grizzly walks into a bar and says "I'm looking for the man who shot my paw."

      Those are all the funny 'bear in a bar' jo
    • And the barman says "What's with the big pause?"

      And of course he then turns to the horse and says "And you. Why the long face?"

  • Not sure about the recommendation (Score:5, Funny)

    by shadow349 ( 1034412 ) on Monday March 31, 2008 @11:58AM (#22922576)
    I rated 8 jokes and it gave me this recommendation:

    Could not connect to user database: Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock' (11)

    I don't get it.

  • Nailed Me! (Score:5, Informative)

    by phobos13013 ( 813040 ) on Monday March 31, 2008 @11:58AM (#22922582)
    I must say, after ten jokes, it got me spot on. Longer, story-like jokes with ironic or twist ends! Me likes!

    In my case it seemed to hit on all the things i hated first and then after about ten jokes in, just started riffing. I wonder how long till i exhaust the database...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by kesuki ( 321456 )
      Well it couldn't nail me down at ALL i spent easily 20 minutes trying it and it couldn't nail down what kind of joke I'd find funny at all, it finally wound up repeating a joke I'd modded down (i think it got confused)

      the problem is i don't like generas of humor, if i find the individual joke tasteless I'll rank it down, if I lol at a joke i rank it high, even if i had to resort to google to get the joke....
      • I think you may have been confused, one time when i got the database error response i went back, but in trying to do so, it said it does not want you to re-rank a joke you have already ranked. So, I'm guessing the joke you thought was a repeat was actually a different version or some such.
  • Could not connect to user database: Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock' (11)

  • Stay Away from Politics (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Nom du Keyboard ( 633989 ) on Monday March 31, 2008 @12:00PM (#22922596)
    It must have real problems with political jokes. Half the people think they're real funny, while the other half don't. And that half changes by joke!

  • Warning. It's another covert US military project (Score:5, Funny)

    by GreatBunzinni ( 642500 ) on Monday March 31, 2008 @12:00PM (#22922602)
    They are trying to develop the funniest joke in the world.

  • Not too bad. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by 0100010001010011 ( 652467 ) on Monday March 31, 2008 @12:03PM (#22922658)
    Before the slashdotting I made it through the 'training' and then through about 20 jokes, it wasn't too bad.

    And don't worry, the jokes get longer it's only the initial ones that are the one or two liners.

  • Reminds me of the old saw,

    Q: How many MIT Engineers does it take to screw up a light-bulb joke?

    A: That's not funny!

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by Jonas the Bold ( 701271 )
      Some off color ones:

      How many Vietman vets does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
      YOU DON'T KNOW YOU WEREN'T THERE

      How many Fruedians does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
      Two, one to screw in the lightbulb and the other holds the penis LADDER -holds the ladder. The ladder. Fuck.

      • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

        by treeves ( 963993 )
        How many flies des it take to screw in a light bulb?

        Two. but how do they get IN there?

  • My sense of humor crashed the joke program!

    Invalid query: Table 'jester5_emptyjokeclusters' is marked as crashed and should be repaired

    So, who wants to file a bug report on this one? Wonder if someone played a joke on them by submitting their website to Slashdot?

  • joke? (Score:2, Funny)

    by ledvinap ( 412654 )
    How many slashdotters does it take to take down Jester? ...

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by garett_spencley ( 193892 )
      I tried it out, but I didn't find a single joke to be funny. Then it told me that it had enough data to start giving me personalized jokes tailored to my tastes so I proceeded. Yet I STILL didn't find a single joke to be funny.

      After about 10 jokes all rated "Not Funny" I got the following message:

      "WARNING: Jester is not very well suited for Slashdot moderators. Try reading some Voltaire instead " :\

  • best joke... (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    best one i found....

    A man piloting a hot air balloon discovers he has wandered off course and is hopelessly lost. He descends to a lower altitude and locates a man down on the ground. He lowers the balloon further and shouts, "Excuse me, can you tell me where I am?"

    The man below says, "Yes, you're in a hot air balloon, about 30 feet above this field."

    "You must work in Information Technology," says the balloonist.

    "Yes I do," replies the man. "And how did you know that?"

    "Well," says the balloonist, "what you

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jellie ( 949898 )
      That reminds me of a joke my math professor once told us (though kinda paraphrased):

      Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are in a hot air balloon, when they discover that they are lost. They see a man on the ground and yell, "Excuse me, can you tell me where we are?"

      The man, after thinking for a second, shouts back, "You're in a hot air balloon!"

      Frustrated by the answer, Watson asks Holmes, "Who was that man?"

      "He was a mathematician," Holmes replies.

      Watson asks, "How did you know?"

      Holmes says, "Well, his answer w

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by dgatwood ( 11270 )

        A guy was riding in a helicopter in the Pacific Northwest when the fog rolled in. Almost completely lost, the pilot carefully followed a major road until he got to a large building, whereupon he grabbed a piece of cardboard and made a sign that said "Where am I?"

        A man inside the building then quickly found a piece of paper and hastily scribbled a sign that read "You're in a helicopter."

        The pilot promptly turned and made his way to the airport and landed.

        "That was amazing!" the rider exclaimed u

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by dgatwood ( 11270 )

          And, of course, it was only broken in the preview, so now when I submitted the content, I have a ridiculous amount of space between paragraphs.

  • Slashdotted (Score:5, Funny)

    by Jhan ( 542783 ) on Monday March 31, 2008 @12:21PM (#22922862) Homepage

    But before it went it actually did seem to be homing in on my sense of humor.

    A castaway crawls up on a far-way beach only to be greeted by a hundred angry, armed savages. The chief approaches him.

    Castaway:

    Oh, God, I'm screwed!

    Suddenly, the clouds split asunder and our castaway hears the voice of God:

    No, my son. Thou art not screwed yet. Pick ye up the rock before you, and bring it unto the head of the chief.

    Inspired, the castaway lifts the heavy rock before him and smashes it into the skull of the chief just as he walks up. The chief falls down dead.

    Again the voice of God booms:

    Now you're screwed.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by thewils ( 463314 )
      My favourite God-type joke...

      A golfer who was well into his golden years had a lifelong
      ambition to play one hole at Pebble Beach, California the way the
      pros do it. The pros drive the ball out over the water onto the
      green that is on a spit of land that juts out off the coast.
      It was something he had tried hundreds of times without
      success. His ball always fell short, into the water. Because of
      this he never used a new ball on this particular hole. He always
      picked out one that had

  • Joke's On Us (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Doc Ruby ( 173196 ) on Monday March 31, 2008 @12:26PM (#22922896) Homepage Journal

    Underlying it is a Berkeley-patented "collaborative filtering algorithm" dubbed Eigentaste , now on Version 5.0. The more people who use the system and rate jokes, the more data Berkeley researchers have to advance their understanding of recommendation systems, like those used by Amazon.com and other Web sites."


    Yes, of course I want to give Berkeley researchers my time for free, so they can add that to the public subsidies that pay for their research, so they can patent the technology and charge me to use it later.

    I'm the punchline!

  • What I got: (Score:1, Redundant)

    by Telecommando ( 513768 )
    "Invalid query: Table 'jester5_emptyjokeclusters' is marked as crashed and should be repaired"

    Hey, that's pretty funny!

  • Good thing this story was today (Score:3, Insightful)

    by PingXao ( 153057 ) on Monday March 31, 2008 @01:02PM (#22923266)
    If this story had been posted tomorrow, April 1, I would have dismissed it out of hand as some sort of hoax. April Fool's Day is the worst day of the year at /. One of my New Years' resolutions was to not visit /. at all tomorrow. It's just not worth it and, unlike some of those Jester jokes, the stories aren't even that funny.

  • Invalid query: Table 'jester5_emptyjokeclusters' is marked as crashed and should be repaired
    I don't get it. SQL humor was always a bit over my head.

  • Invalid query: Table 'jester5_emptyjokeclusters' is marked as crashed and should be repaired

    Very funny.

  • The Funniest Jokes in the World - Study (Score:3, Interesting)

    by writerjosh ( 862522 ) * on Monday March 31, 2008 @01:32PM (#22923496) Homepage
    A scientific survey in 2002 attempted to find the funniest joke in the world. Thousands of people from dozens of countries voted on thousands of jokes. Each country had a different favorite. Overall, the number one and number two funniest jokes in the world, based on votes, are:

    http://www.innocentenglish.com/best-funny-jokes/funniest-jokes.html [innocentenglish.com]
  • Hey Man! Would you like to hear a joke?
  • Well tomorrow is April 1 so when is a better than a Joke rater introduced on March 31. I wonder how will all of the pranks rate on April 2?
  • This is a bit off topic, and feel free to mod it as such, but has anyone else noticed a new layout for slashdot comments on some stories? I see it on this one, and I guess anything on http://idle.slashdot.org/ [slashdot.org] is cooler looking. Is this going to be rolled out to all the other parts? At least at first glance, I think I like it.
  • Only one subdomain of Slashdot (idle.slashdot.org) seems to have gone annoyingly "Web 2.0" for April 1, 2008.

    Feh. I want "OMG! PONIES!!1" back.

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