Some time ago we talked about the oldest joke of humanity, because today we are going to see the jokes that triumphed in the different civilizations of Antiquity. Of course, starting from the basis that this humor is very relative...
Sumerian
Here we find some of the oldest examples of humor in humanity. The Sumerians were fond of writing moral treatises which also constitute the most primitive forms of philosophy found to date. One of the most famous is the Treaty of the Just Sufferer , in which a good guy is harassed by the gods who inflict all kinds of misfortunes on him, while he suffers them with patience and submission to the divinity. In this case it is not very clear if the sense of humor is in the poor devil or in the gods themselves. In general, in this type of treatise, sensible and moral phrases are combined with others in which a fine irony is perceived:“They lend money and worries to the poor ”, or this one:“It would be better for the poor man to die; if he has bread, he has no salt; if he has salt, he has no bread; if he has meat, he has no lamb; if he has a lamb... he has no meat .”
Other times we find proverbs and sayings of the most humorous:“It is so dirty, that you do not know who is the ass and who is the groom ”, “The servant always wears a dirty skirt ”, or “Tell lies, or tell truths, others will count them as lies ”. In a popular fable, a fox stomps on an ox. He turns to him and says:“Oops, sorry! Did I hurt you? ”. It should be specified that in Sumerian fables, the fox plays the role of the cunning, cocky, braggart and, sometimes, a bit of a coward.
A field where we see samples of humor, and that is the most modern, is that of weddings. In any Sumerian wedding party, apart from a good treat, the guests had to recite poems in honor of the newlyweds. When the attendees had already had a good consumption of beer, the poems became humorous:“For pleasure, marriage... on second thought, divorce ”, or “A joyful heart:the bride; a heavy heart:the groom ”.
And to finish, the oldest joke of humanity. The text of it is as follows:
The never seen in the lands of the black heads (Sumerians); that a tender young girl winds herself sitting on the legs of her lover.
It's the oldest joke... and it's scatological. Who said that humanity has changed in 4000 years?
Egypt
In the Westcar Papyrus , an Egyptian text 169 cm long and about 33 cm high written in Hyksos times, between 1650 B.C. and 1540 BC, which brings together magical tales and has been preserved since 1866 in the Egyptian Museum in Berlin, this joke appears:
How do you entertain a bored pharaoh? You sail a boat loaded with young women, clad only in fishing nets, down the Nile and ask Pharaoh to go fishing.
And he also triumphed in those parts...
A man brings the body of his dead father to the Egyptian embalmers in Alexandria. When he goes to recover it, the embalmer, who has several bodies, asks him if his father had any particular signs that could identify him. "A bad cough," replies the son.
Greece
A friend said to a philosopher:“Congratulations! I heard that your wife just had a child.' The philosopher, with a face of few friends, replied:"Yes, thanks to friends like you."
A fortune teller told a man, "You are incapable of having children." When the man replied that he was 7, the seer replied:“Oh, yes? Take a good look at them»
An Abderite [inhabitant of the city-state of Abdera (Thrace), who were known to be fools] sleeps with his grandmother, is surprised by his father and beats him up. The son, between sobs, complains:“You have slept with my mother many times and I don't say anything! Why do you hit me for sleeping only once with yours?”
Rome
A citizen entered a brothel and asked the leno (the owner of the business) how much he charged for a black prostitute. Since it seemed like a lot to him, he asked again:“And what is his rate for the night?”
We can also highlight one that has been told throughout history changing the identity of its protagonist. The Roman writer and grammarian Macrobius tells us in his work Saturnalia …
In the case of Augustus, I admire more the jokes he endured than those he himself uttered, since praise is greater for patience than for eloquence, especially as he indulged even some highly scathing jokes. The scathing joke of a guy from the province became famous. This man, strikingly resembling Caesar, had come to Rome and all eyes had turned on him. Augustus ordered that he be brought before him and, after seeing him, asked him the following:"Tell me, young man, was your mother ever in Rome?" He answered no, but added:"But my father many times."
Another thing is the grace they have for us and what they could have for them. So, I'll stick with what Elbert Hubbar said:
“Don't take life too seriously; you will never get out of it alive.”