Have we really had the last laugh?

Sunday is International Joke Day, says Jonathan deBurca Butler, who wonders if, jokes aside, there’s any point

IT’S official. The joke has been included on a list of endangered cultural species. Catch it while you can because it is becoming something of a rarity. Whereas in days gone by it was common to hear someone at a table ask if anyone had a joke, they have, it seems, become something of a faux pas.

Even the New York Times recently declared: The joke is dead.