The Internet is killing off the art of telling jokes and now the average Briton only remembers and recycles the same two jokes, a new survey showed on Friday.

Up to 75 percent of those surveyed by Loaded Magazine admitted they spent up to an hour a week at work sending humorous e-mails.

A lonely five percent admitted they had never received a joke via their inbox.

A whopping 40 percent of those polled admitted that they recycled the same two jokes over and over again.

“It’s altogether easier to press a button to forward a whole ream of jokes rather than tell them all one by one,” said Martin Daubney, editor of Loaded Magazine which, undeterred, is staging this year’s LAFTA awards for comedians.

He said: “These days it seems you’re much more likely to hear ‘Did you see that clip on You Tube?’ rather than ‘There was an Englishman, Irishman and Scotsman…”‘

copyright © 2007 Reuters. All rights reserved.