What was the first recorded joke made by a human or human-like species?
from cheese_greater@lemmy.world to nostupidquestions@lemmy.ca on 02 Apr 17:49
https://lemmy.world/post/45080650

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phoenixarise@lemmy.world on 02 Apr 18:03 next collapse

It may be this:

reuters.com/…/worlds-oldest-joke-traced-back-to-1…

I posted this on r/todayilearned a while back and they removed it. Typical reddit. 🙄 I learned it today, did I not?

cheese_greater@lemmy.world on 02 Apr 18:18 collapse

The oldest British joke dates back to the 10th Century and reveals the bawdy face of the Anglo-Saxons – “What hangs at a man’s thigh and wants to poke the hole that it’s often poked before? Answer: A key.”

Not the oldest but i like this one

j4k3@lemmy.world on 02 Apr 18:41 next collapse

Ea-nāṣir’s copper?

DagwoodIII@piefed.social on 02 Apr 20:14 next collapse

[off topic]

Not the oldest, but one worth anyone’s attention.

Ben Franklin’s fart joke.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Letter_to_a_Royal_Academy

Kolanaki@pawb.social on 02 Apr 20:16 collapse

IIRC the earliest recorded thing thought to be a joke is some ancient summerian shit about a blind dog walking into a bar and saying “I can’t see a thing. I’ll open this one.”

Nobody alive today understands the joke, to the point it is even debated whether or not it was meant to be a joke. But it has all the hallmarks of the standard “X walks into a bar” style joke.

The same tablet had this bit of wisdom on it tho: “Something which has never occured since time immemorial: a young woman did not fart in her husband’s lap.” As well as what may be the first “yo momma” joke ever written down (but that part is damaged).