The sketch is framed in a documentary style and opens with Ernest Scribbler (Michael Palin), a British "writer 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.