We learn this from Percival Leigh's The Comic English Grammar: A New and Facetious Introduction to the English Tongue (1840):

Which is funnier: an apple or a banana?

Clue: This is according to a radio presenter.

Answer: banana (The answer is in black text on the black background. Highlight it to view.)

Citation: Peter Stewart, Essential Radio Skills: How to Present a Radio Show (2010), p. 216

Which word is funnier: tomato or banana?

Clue: This is according to the classic satirical magazine Punch.

Answer: tomato (The answer is in black text on the black background. Highlight it to view.)

Citation: Punch (1923)

Which word is funnier: moist or supercalifragilisticexpialidocious?

Clue: This is according to feminist/humour academic Gina Barreca.

Answer: ..............moist................ (The answer is in black text on the black background. Highlight it to view.)

Citation: Gene Weingarten & Gina Barreca, I'm with Stupid (2006)

Which word is funnier: bucket or pail?

Clue: This is according to rhetoricians.

Answer: Bucket. (The answer is in black text on the black background. Highlight it to view.)

Citation: Wilma R. Ebbitt, William T. Lenehan, The Writer's Reader (1968)

Which state is funnier: Maine or Kansas?

Note: This is according to the sounds of the words and not the citizens.

Answer: Kansas. Humorists note that a hard "k" tends to make words sound funny. (The answer is in black text on the black background. Highlight it to view.)

Which word is funnier: girdle or corset?

Clue: This is according to humorist Jack Rawlins.

Answer: girdle (The answer is in black text on the black background. Highlight it to view.)

Which word is funnier: turpentine or spatula?

Clue: The answer is also funnier than yogurt and llama.

Answer: turpentine. (The answer is in black text on the black background. Highlight it to view.)

Citation: Alan Madison, 100 Days and 99 Nights (2008)

Let's enjoy an interlude from our long-running game to consider some things that sound funnier than they are:

• amusia — a less-than amusing condition in which one loses musical ability.  (This one is noted in Erin McKean's Weird and Wonderful Words.)
• the zany plots of most ghost comedies.  (This is noted in The TV Times Film and Video Guide.)
• Montezuma's Revenge.  (This is noted in Florence Crannell Means' Emmy and the Blue Door.)
• a "tepid boxoffice blunder."  (This is noted in Videohound's Golden Movie Retriever.)
• a penile Swiss Army knife bristling with attachments.  (This is noted in Hollywood East: Hong Kong Movies and the People Who Made Them.)
• last rites spoken in Pig Latin.  (This is noted in the "Pluck You, Too!" blog.)
• sexsomnia — unwanted "sleep sex."  (This is noted by CNN producer Stephanie Smith.)
• snoring
• cuckolding
  
• a mounted Boer.  (This is noted in The Bedside 'Guardian,' Vol. 23.)
• a 6-foot tall rabbit called Frank.  (This is referring to the film Donnie Darko.)
  

Which car is funnier: Buick or Chevrolet?

Clue: This is according to the book Humor in the Classroom: A Handbook for Teachers (and Other Entertainers!)

Answer: .....Buick......” (The answer is in black text on the black background. Highlight it to view.)

Citation: Deborah J. Hill (1998), p. 67

Which is funnier: last year's fashions or last century's?

Clue: This is according to playwright Arthur Wing Pinero.

Answer: Last year's. (The answer is in black text on the black background. Highlight it to view.)

Citation: Sir Arthur Wing Pinero, Plays (1986)

Which is funnier: January or August?

Clue: This is according to humorist David Sedaris.

Answer: August. (The answer is in black text on the black background. Highlight it to view.)

Citation: David Sedaris, Holidays on Ice (2009)

Which is funnier: flat or perspective?

Clue:  This is according to a guide to drawing comics

Answer:  Flat.  (The answer is in black text on the black background.  Highlight it to view.)

Citation:  Suck School of Comic Art, Suck.com, (Nov. 7, 1997)

How did the editor of Punch reply to someone who complained that his magazine was not as funny as it used to be?

Clue:  He spoke three words.

Answer:  “It never was.”  (The answer is in black text on the black background.  Highlight it to view.)

Citation:  Joseph S. Nye, Bound to Lead: The Changing Nature of American Power (1990), p. 87.

Which is funnier: a brandy bottle or a prayer book?

Clue:  This is according to biographer Lytton Strachey.

Answer:  a brandy bottle.  (The answer is in black text on the black background.  Highlight it to view.)

Citation:  Michael Holroyd, Lytton Strachey: A Critical Biography (1968), p. 315.

True or False: Line graphs are 50% funnier than bar charts.

Clue:  This is according to a guide to drawing comics

Answer:  True.  (The answer is in black text on the black background.  Highlight it to view.)

Citation:  Suck School of Comic Art, Suck.com, (Nov. 7, 1997)

True or False: Sideburns are funnier than Vandykes.

Clue:  This is according to a guide to drawing comics

Answer:  False.  (The answer is in black text on the black background.  Highlight it to view.)

Citation:  Suck School of Comic Art, Suck.com, (Nov. 7, 1997)

Which Shakespeare play is funnier: Hamlet or A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Clue:  This is according to a user’s guide to Hamlet

Answer:  A Midsummer Night’s Dream  (The answer is in black text on the black background.  Highlight it to view.)

Citation:  Michael Pennington, Hamlet: A User’s Guide (1997), p. 18.

True or False: Flow charts are the funniest charts of all.

Clue:  This is according to a guide to drawing comics

Answer:  True.  (The answer is in black text on the black background.  Highlight it to view.)

Citation:  Suck School of Comic Art, Suck.com, (Nov. 7, 1997)

Which word is funnier: car or Buick?

Clue:  This is according to the book Drawing on the Funny Side of the Brain

Answer:  Buick, as it is “funny sounding and more specific.”  (The answer is in black text on the black background.  Highlight it to view.)

Citation:  Christopher Hart, Drawing on the Funny Side of the Brain (1998), p. 107