As we've noted before, Los Angeles and New York, with their comedy clubs and television shows, are comedy capitals.

We'd argue L.A. is even more com-centric given that we also make sitcoms and comedy films more often. Heck, even the king of all laugh-track shows, Seinfeld, was set in New York but shot in L.A.

But once again, a national ranking has robbed L.A. of what's rightfully ours:
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Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder looked at the following factors during a span of nine months, the school says:

 … Frequency of visits by community members to comedy websites; the number of comedy clubs per square mile; traveling comedians' ratings of each city's comedy club audiences; the number of native-born famous comedians; the number of local funny tweeters; the number of local comedy radio stations; and the frequency of humor-related Web searches originating in each city.

Despite the fact that we broadcast more comedy to America than anywhere else, L.A. didn't even make the top 5, according to results released over the weekend.

Los Angeles came in seventh place behind New York (sixth), which also placed way too low. The winner? Chicago. Yeah, sure, Second City, John Belushi and Da Bulls. All that.

But really University of Colorado Boulder?

Peter McGraw, associate professor of marketing and psychology said his ranking was not about comedy as commerce:

A city's humor score isn't just a measure of historic reputation or big-name productions. It's a way of looking at the day-to-day lives of people in that city. A city's sense of humor is a living, breathing thing, created by everything from coffee shop conversations to Web videos shared between friends to the laughter that erupts at comedy clubs.

We're a joyless town, apparently.

McGraw also said that, despite L.A.'s position as a global comedy tastemaker, comedy is local and doesn't always travel well:

We found humor often has a local flavor. The jokes that get laughs at comedy clubs in Denver seem unlikely to fly with a cartoon editor at The New Yorker, for example. The kind of torturous game shows that some Japanese find amusing would likely fall flat to a sitcom producer in Los Angeles.

Here's the list. Try not to laugh out loud when you see that L.A. isn't number one:

1. Chicago
2. Boston
3. Atlanta
4. Washington, D.C.
5. Portland, Ore.
6. New York
7. Los Angeles
8. Denver
9. San Francisco
10. Seattle 

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