The sketch is framed in a documentary style and opens with Ernest Scribbler (
Michael Palin), a
British "manufacturer of jokes", creating and writing the funniest joke in the world on a piece of paper, only to die laughing. His mother (
Eric Idle) finds the joke, thinks it is a suicide note, reads it and also immediately dies laughing. Aware of the deadly nature of the joke, a brave
Scotland Yard inspector (
Graham Chapman) attempts to retrieve the joke, aided by the playing of very sombre music on gramophone records and the chanting of laments by fellow policemen to create a depressing atmosphere. The inspector leaves the house with the joke in hand, but also dies from laughter. The
British Army are soon eager to determine "the military potential of the Killer Joke". They test the joke on a short-sighted rifleman (
Terry Jones), who suppresses a laugh and falls dead on the range. After confirming its "devastating effectiveness at a range of up to 50 yards", they then translate it into
German, with each translator working on only one word of the joke for their own safety (one translator saw two words of the joke and had to be hospitalised for several weeks). The German "translation" (in reality mostly just
nonsense words) is used for the first time on 8 July 1944 in the
Ardennes, causing German soldiers to fall down dead from laughter: The German version is described as being "over 60,000 times as powerful as Britain's great pre-war joke" (at this point a newsreel of Prime Minister
Neville Chamberlain waving his "
piece of paper" appears on screen). The joke is then used in open warfare, with
Tommies running through an open field amid artillery fire while shouting the joke at the Germans, who die laughing in response. Afterward, a German
field hospital is shown with bandaged German soldiers on stretchers, convulsing with laughter, presumably having heard some parts of the joke. In a subsequent scene, a British officer from the Joke Brigade (Palin) has been taken prisoner and is being interrogated by
Gestapo officers. The British officer uses the joke to escape as his German captors die laughing, with one German officer (Cleese) insisting that the joke isn't funny. He then cracks up and utters a
Woody Woodpecker-style laugh, before expiring. The Germans attempt counter-jokes, but each attempt is found unsuccessful, with unamused Gestapo officers executing the hapless scientists as a consequence. For example, a film is shown of
Adolf Hitler supposedly telling the joke while giving a speech. It is translated to "My dog has no nose", then a German soldier asking "How does he smell?", with Hitler replying, "Awful!". Eventually their best "V-joke" (in reference to the
V-weapons) is attempted on a
radio broadcast to British households: "Der ver zwei peanuts, valking down der Straße, und von vas assaulted...peanut. Ohohohoho!" Although the joke is followed triumphantly by the German anthem "
Deutschland über alles", the attack is ineffective, and merely confuses any Britons listening. The British joke is said to have been laid to rest when "peace broke out" at the end of the war, and countries agree to a joke warfare ban at the
Geneva Convention. In 1950, the last copy of the joke is sealed under a monument in the
Berkshire countryside, bearing the inscription "
To the Unknown Joke". Thus, the English version of the joke is never revealed to the audience. ==Hitler footage from the sketch in reality==