[HN Gopher] Jokes that have made people laugh for thousands of y...
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Jokes that have made people laugh for thousands of years
Author : wjSgoWPm5bWAhXB
Score : 59 points
Date : 2022-03-27 09:31 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.bbc.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.bbc.com)
| [deleted]
| traceddd wrote:
| Why even bother describing the joke if the punchline is too crass
| for publication? Pick another joke.
| elliotshep wrote:
| They didn't include the punchline to first joke, who does that?
| Someone asked the author of the paper though
| https://twitter.com/Tenthcentury/status/1507168622208188449
| Two men were walking along a road talking of this and that. "What
| do you think," says one. "Which is more fun, defecating or having
| sex?" The guy says, "Let's ask that prostitute, she's
| done one as often as the other."
| kadoban wrote:
| Is it me or is that punchline not even crass? The wording the
| article uses to allude to it is equally crass, as far as I'm
| concerned (so what was the point of not including it?).
| lqet wrote:
| Either I am not getting the punchline behind the punchline, the
| prostitute is not very successful, or she has serious bowel
| problems.
| blowski wrote:
| You had to be there, I guess.
| bryanrasmussen wrote:
| It's a typical joke popular with the Carthaginians that the
| Romans all suffered from chronic constipation.
| 867-5309 wrote:
| that would be the opposite
| pvaldes wrote:
| Or is being paid for...
| dang wrote:
| Recent and related:
|
| _Sumerian dog jokes, or the difficulty of translating dead
| languages_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30752942 -
| March 2022 (315 comments)
| codeulike wrote:
| Thats a long time to laugh
| allturtles wrote:
| What a strange article relative to its title. It provides one
| complete example of a joke, and then admits that no one would
| actually find it funny these days. It seems to be more about the
| fact that scatalogical humor _as a category_ has been considered
| funny for thousands of years.
|
| I wonder if there are real examples of jokes that have remained
| funny for thousands of years. There are ancient comedic writings
| like the Greek comedies, but from the little I've read of those
| the humor doesn't really come across either, at least in modern
| English, though it's also clearly heavily scatalogical.
| wanderer_ wrote:
| Martial was a famous poet who wrote books of epigrams. He, while
| less prolific than Shakespeare, similarly invented a lot of
| common insults.
|
| (For those who don't know, I'll save you a google: epigrams were
| short poems that were lighthearted and often made fun of people
| using dry classical humor.)
| khazhoux wrote:
| Save your click. Not a single joke is listed.
| peter303 wrote:
| "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" is supposed
| based on the plays of Plautus from 2200 years ago.
| lqet wrote:
| Shameless plug: a few months ago I was frustrated by a similar
| article's lack of jokes and compiled some funny jokes from
| antiquity:
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28468098
|
| A favorite: A provincial man has come to Rome,
| and walking on the streets was drawing everyone's attention, as
| he was a real double of the emperor Augustus. The emperor, having
| brought him to the palace, looks at him and then asks: "Tell me,
| young man, did your mother come to Rome anytime?" The reply was:
| "She never did. But my father frequently was here."
| gibspaulding wrote:
| I have that comment favorited and was just about to link it
| here; it's a good list!
| jvanderbot wrote:
| Now that's comedy. I love that people haven't changed that much
| in 1000s of years.
| stavros wrote:
| I don't get it :/ Can someone explain?
|
| EDIT: Apparently the emperor is asking to see if they share
| parents, and not to see whether the emperor is his father, as I
| originally thought.
| korse wrote:
| It is a 'yo momma' joke you uncultured swine.
|
| Nah man... Your Dad (Emperor) didn't bang my Mom (Plebian).
|
| My Dad (Plebian) BANGED YOUR MOM!!! (Empress probably)
| JackGreyhat wrote:
| It suggests they have the same father
| glaucon wrote:
| The question implies that his Mother may have had sex with
| the father of Augustus.
|
| The answer suggests that it was his Father that had sex with
| the mother of Augustus.
|
| It's funny because there's a lot more tension associated with
| the current Emperor having been fathered by the "wrong"
| person than, under the original assumption, that some rube
| from the country was fathered by the Emperor's father.
| lqet wrote:
| The emperor makes a joke at the cost of the peasant's mother
| - that she was in Rome at some point and was impregnated by
| the emperor's father. The peasant's clever answer implies
| that his own (peasant) father had sex with the emperor's
| mother and that the emperor is therefore the son of a
| peasant.
| iso1210 wrote:
| > clever answer
|
| Well that depends on what happens next, but ending up being
| thrown to the lions would take the shine of the "clever"
| part
| corpMaverick wrote:
| yeah,yeah.
|
| But don't loose sight that this humor was a way of people
| to get their frustrations with the emperor out and let
| the little guy win.
| tonguez wrote:
| thanks for pointing that out!
| [deleted]
| gentleman11 wrote:
| Typical of the news, we have an article about a topic that omits
| the source material. Everyone who clicked that link wanted to
| read or listen to those old jokes and that's the one thing the
| article omits
| dwighttk wrote:
| I was hoping for more of a list
| Cerium wrote:
| You made me laugh more than any joke in the article. The way of
| the world: when you want a thoughtful paragraph you get a list,
| when a list would be best you get something else.
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