The funniest joke in the world

With the comedy festival hitting Melbourne, you can’t escape comedians, comedy shows, laughs - and bad jokes!

But different things are funny to different people, aren’t they? Well, apparently “not always” is the answer.

I tracked down some research, carried out by LaughLab psychologist from the University of Hertfordshire.  He proposes to have found the funniest joke in the world – based on 2 million ratings over 40,000 jokes on 12 months.

So want to hear it?

Two hunters are out in the woods when one of them collapses. He doesn’t seem to be breathing and his eyes are glazed. The other guy takes out his phone and calls the emergency services.

He gasps: “My friend is dead! What can I do?” The operator says: “Calm down, I can help. First, let’s make sure he’s dead.” There is a silence, then a gunshot is heard. Back on the phone, the guy says:

“OK, now what?”

Hmmmm…. 

Think you can do better? Give us all a giggle and post your (clean) jokes in the comments! The first five (funny of course) jokes go will win a double comedy festival pass to Pappy’s Fun Club.

From Kimberly the Marketing chick

Flexicar’s been Googled

Flexicar hit the world stage in February 2008, with Google producing a Video on our business. It certainly came as a surprise to us-

Here’s the story……

Once upon a time there was a girl named Goldilocks (I will play Goldilocks as I am writing this) who worked for a company called Flexicar. Flexicar was made up of Mama Bear (Monique CEO), Papa Bear (Brendan Operations Manager) and Baby Bear (Ruth Accounts).

One day in late 2007, Goldilocks was perplexed with a Google Adwords question. So she picked up the telephone, called Google directly and pretty soon had the answers to her questions.

Soon after this telephone call, Goldilocks then received a call from Google.

To her surprise they were so fascinated by our company they wanted to do a case study on Flexicar and the positive impact of Google in the marketing of our business.

Goldilocks screamed with excitement and passed on the news to Mama Bear, Papa Bear and Baby Bear. Flexicar was finally hitting the world stage and we were going to be famous! Goldilocks answered some questions and was looking forward to reading the case study on the Google website.

A week later, Goldilocks and the three bears received another call from Google. Not only did they want to do a written case study on Flexicar, they also wanted to make a video! Goldilocks and the three bears screamed with glee.

Soon after, the Google Guys and their film crew “Quick Clips” arrived from Sydney for a full day of shooting here in our Melbourne home. Mama bear was to be filmed all day with Goldilocks, Papa and Baby bear entertaining the crew.

In the months following, Google posted the video on their website- check it out on our site Flexicar’s been Googled.

Since the video was posted it’s had over 25000 viewings!

Since then, Mama Bear, Goldilocks and the 2 bears have been hard at work keeping up with the overwhelming response that the video created.

So if you want to find out more about Flexicar then log onto www.flexicar.com.au.

By the way we’ve even got names for our cars and yes there even a Goldilocks, she’s parked at the Piedmonte’s carpark in Fitzroy North.

Check out our other locations

Flexicar Locations

The End (By Debbie – Sales & Marketing)

Give me a chance to explain

I love working on the marketing of Flexicar – it’s an innovative service, it’s helping the environment through working to reduce car usage and it’s a young and entrepreneurial Australian business.

But we continually face an ongoing dilemma in marketing the service – which is that we really need the chance to explain what the service is all about and answer the myriad of questions people have about it.

And it isn’t really all that complicated – join as a member and then hire cars by the hour instead of owning one – but it’s still such a new way of thinking that it really does confound people.

Once we get the chance to explain it, we invariably get people saying “that’s such a good idea”! In fact, nearly everyone I’ve ever met thinks it’s a great idea, even if they’re not quite ready to give up their own beloved money pit (aka their own car!).

That’s why word of mouth is so critical to growing Flexicar. Because there’s only six of us in the Flexicar office who are meeting people and explaining what we do. But we have hundreds and hundreds of members out there who are doing my job for me – explaining to other people what Flexicar is all about!

So, if you’re a member talking about Flexicar – thanks for doing my job. And keep up the good work.

Hopefully in the not-too-distant future we won’t have to explain the service any more and we can get straight to the good bit….more cars for all of us to use and that question I love to hear . . . “Where do I sign?”.

Kimberly the Flexicar marketing chick!

Beyond 2000 – And 8

I remember back in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s watching a great TV show called “Beyond 2000″.  Everything it showed seemed so hi tech and so unbelievable.  This was also around the time that “Back To The Future” had Michael J Fox riding around on a hovering skateboard and there was the ability to make video phone calls….CRAZY!!!

One thing that did stick out in my mind was a 2hr special they did on the environment.  Their suggestion was to make sure we weren’t using any power that we didn’t need.  And so I made it my personal mission to save the world (as I am sure all 11 year olds watching took on board), therefore following my sister and mum around the house, making sure they switched off lights, televisions and radios, and made sure the fridge door was always closed, or that we tried not to use the dryer…they were over it pretty quickly!!!

BUT now, I have the same task for Flexicar.  Too many members are leaving interior and headlights on in Flexicars, both during and after their bookings.  Not only is this a waste of power, batteries are getting run down and only work for half the time they are supposed to, sending them to the afterlife well before their time…not to mention the inconvenience to other members and the Flexicar Operations team.

Let’s turn out the lights, help the environment and help our little Flexicars get more time on the road from their batteries.

Brendan the Operations Manager

Oh my…myki delayed

On the weekend the Sunday Age reported the new Victorian public transport smartcard ticketing system may be abandoned. Apparently budget blowouts and time delays may see the new “myki” system shelved.

This is disappointing news. Flexicar is eagerly awaiting the introduction of a modern smartcard public transport ticketing system. The new myki smartcard ticketing system uses the same sort of technology that runs the Flexicar fleet. If such a smartcard public transport ticketing system existed, the opportunity to integrate public transport and Flexicar would create a whole new spectrum of personal transportation for Melbournians.

With one smartcard you could get on a tram, a train, a bus, and a Flexicar – all your transport needs covered by one swipe of the wrist. How good would that be? How much easy would it be to live car free?

It may sound futuristic, but many cities in European already have integrated sustainable transport systems that include car share. And this plan has already gained support from the Victorian government way back in 2005….(when we used to be called Flo Carshare).

But back in 2005 the Victorian government told us we’d have new public transport smartcard system by 2007. It now sounds as though the delays to myki mean a world class, integrated, sustainable transport system for Melbourne is still some years away.