FRANKIE DeGROOT | Local News | Contact
A newly-released report has found that there is a 0% chance that driving away just as a mate is reaching for the vehicle’s external door handle will be anything other than hilarious.
The report, commissioned by the Australian Centre for Vehicular Comedy found that all survey respondents exhibited strong signs of mirth when shown a video which depicted a vehicle driving off just as a potential passenger is reaching for the door.
Their responses varied from a smirk to a loud outburst of laughter, all of which were consistently found to contain more hilarity than the responses generated by the control video, which depicted a man simply opening the passenger door and getting into the vehicle uneventfully before the car is driven away.
Statistician David Snark said the results were positive, and reinforced the widely-held view that the popular gag is highly amusing.
“Nobody on the survey team was surprised at the outcome, but we were all pleasantly surprised that results were so consistent. In fact, we found that driving away just as someone is about to get in the car is not only funny the first time, but is equally funny when you immediately perform it a second, third or even fourth consecutive time.”
Survey respondent Gary Turpentine said the prank was always funny, and felt he was qualified to make this assessment, having been on both sides of the car door.
At all times he reported that the outcome was hilarity, even once when the gag went awry.
“Yeah, just as I was reaching for the door handle he’s dropped the hammer and just launched it,” explained Gary.
“My jacket sleeve got caught in the door handle and I was dragged 200m down the road and slammed into a letterbox. I was in intensive care for 3 weeks so I didn’t get the joke at first, but looking back it was a classic, hey”.
