Monetary solution earns comic a title

The winner of the Funniest Person in the World competition is a brown-haired, slightly rotund stand-up comic from Finland who boasts that he has found the perfect solution to the planet's international monetary woes.

"Countries don't owe money to each other, countries owe money to banks," says Ismo Leikola. "If the countries owe money to banks, how stupid are the countries to pay? The country has an army. The bank has four cashiers and a cleaning lady."

When Leikola told that joke in the semifinal of the competition last week at The Laugh Factory in Hollywood, it got the biggest laugh of the night.