In 2008 the English television channel Dave commissioned an investigation of the world's oldest jokes from the University of Wolverhampton (of which there was written record, of course ); After two months of inquiry, the study stated that the oldest known joke is found in a Sumerian text (now Iraq) that is approximately 4,000 years old , and is like this:
“Something that has never happened since time immemorial: a young woman farting on her husband's knees.”
The study includes other jokes in their different modalities and with many of the modern connotations: eschatology, mockery of the powerful, sex and money; some are very well known, like Homer's in The Odyssey (800 B.C.) and the way Ulysses escapes the cyclops; others make us see how attached some chascarrillos can be, like that of the donkey who, just when his owner had taught him to live without eating, died (4th century or 5th century!).
Making fun of power: from pharaohs to Roman emperors
“How do you entertain a boring pharaoh? You sail on the Nile a boat loaded with young women dressed only with fishing nets and ask the pharaoh to catch a fish.”
This joke is preserved in the Berlin Museum , in a papyrus from 1600 BC .
The one who follows him with a similar style is 1,600 years younger (from 29 to 63 AD):
"Emperor Augustus was traveling through his Empire, when he met a man who looked a lot like him.Impressed I asked him: 'Maybe your mother worked as a servant in the palace?'.'No, your majesty' , replied this, 'but maybe my father' ”.
The limits of humor, or an investigation
The study does not include jokes from China, India, Japan and other oriental cultures and it is not clear if it is because they do not exist or it was a limitation The research could be the latter, if we consider the presence of humorous outings in stories and parables belonging to the Buddhist tradition.
Research, naturally, emphasizes English humor , although it also reveals that the need to laugh and the effect of humor as a liberating force have always been present in the evolution of Western civilization, which has not hesitated to make fun of other cultures, but has not stopped laughing at itself.
And if you don't know how therapeutic laugh is, we invite you to read the 8 scientifically proven benefits of laughing.
Images: Faith Goble , cheriejoyful
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