A Sumerian proverb from 1900 BC contains the oldest identified joke in human history. The text reads: Something which has never occurred since time immemorial; a young woman did not fart in her husband's lap. This record dates back to the Old Babylonian period and may go as far back as 2300 BC. British TV channel Dave commissioned a team of academics led by humour expert Paul McDonald from the University of Wolverhampton to research these examples in 2008. Their condition required a clear set-up and punch line structure to qualify as a joke.
The second oldest joke appears on the Westcar Papyrus, dating to 1600 BC. It concerns Sneferu, an ancient Egyptian pharaoh. The story asks how one entertains a bored pharaoh. The answer involves sailing a boatload of young women dressed only in fishing nets down the Nile. The pharaoh is urged to go catch a fish. A third known joke comes from Adab and dates to 1200 BC. It tells the tale of three ox drivers seeking justice from a king over ownership of a newborn calf. The final portion including the punchline has not survived intact, though legible fragments suggest it was bawdy in nature.
Evolution Of Printed Jestbooks
The earliest extant joke book is the Philogelos, written in crude ancient Greek during the fourth or fifth century AD. This collection contains 265 jokes and translates to The Laughter-Lover. Scholars attribute the authorship to figures like Hierokles, Philagros the grammatikos, or Philistion. British classicist Mary Beard suggests this work may have been intended as a jokester's handbook of quips to say on the fly rather than a book meant for straight reading.
During the 15th century, the printing revolution spread across Europe following the development of the movable type printing press. Printers turned out jestbooks alongside Bibles to meet both lowbrow and highbrow interests of the populace. One early anthology called Facetiae by Italian Poggio Bracciolini first published in 1470. Twenty editions of this book were documented alone for the 15th century. Another popular form involved collections attributed to single characters in narrative forms known as picaresque novels. Examples include Rabelais in France, Till Eulenspiegel in Germany, Lazarillo de Tormes in Spain, and Master Skelton in England.
Printers also used jokes and cartoons as page fillers in broadsides and chapbooks throughout the 19th century. These cheap publications were ephemera intended for mass distribution and often read aloud before being discarded. An archive at Harvard library describes one such broadside from 1706 titled Grinning made easy; or, Funny Dick's unrivalled collection of curious, comical, odd, droll, humorous, witty, whimsical, laughable, and eccentric jests.