Very Old Jokes

[poliphilo]

They were discussing old jokes on QI last night- and by old I mean very old- anything up to 4,000 years old. Jimmy Carr, who has just written a book about jokes and has been trawling the archives, offered us what he considers the oldest joke that still works. It's Greek, it's over 2,000 years old- and it goes like this:

Barber to customer: How would sir like his hair cut?

Customer to barber: In silence.

Comments

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

Hee, hee! I've heard that joke before, but had no idea it was as old as that! :)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

You could include it in a modern comedy routine and it would fit seamlessly.

[oakmouse]

Good one. IIRC the original "Your mother wears army boots" is about as old, as is a version of the old "horticulture" joke.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I don't think I know the horticulture joke.

The oldest extant joke is apparently a Sumerian ribtickler about young wives farting in their husbands' laps. No, I don't get it either.

[oakmouse]

The Russians think that a woman farting is the sign of her having been, shall we say, well serviced. I suspect the Sumerian joke is based on a similar trope.

The horticulture joke is a riff off of the saying about leading a horse to water: you can lead a whore to culture but you cannot make her think. The Greeks evidently had a joke about the difference between a hetaira and a common prostitute which relied on a similar punch line, minus the pun of course.