World's Oldest Joke Traced to Sumeria in 1900 B.C.

Courtesy of Reuters, which has other ancient jokes as well:

It is a saying of the Sumerians, who lived in what is now southern Iraq and goes: "Something which has never occurred since time immemorial; a young woman did not fart in her husband's lap."

image via flickr user rosemanios

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haha thommy

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Worse than I thought. This "study" wasn't even a study, but some very superficial research done for a TV show.

Their 10th "oldest" joke is from the 5th century! Pathetic. Terrible, terrible science reporting from Reuters and the media.

http://www.birminghampost.net/news/2008/07/31/wolverhampton-researchers-discover-world-s-oldest-joke-65233-21445845/

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Without knowing the requisite cultural context to frame the meaning, how do they know that the saying is intended as a "joke" (other than the fact it mentions farting), or is even the proper translation?

I certainly don't know what it means; and I bet if you got 5 anthropologists together, they couldn't agree either.

Or maybe I'm wrong, but the news article didn't illuminate anything.

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My. God. I just got that crappy Numbers joke. It took me all day. May not be the first, but that's certainly the worst. Congratulations, you have told the worst joke ever. And I fell for it. Kudos, sir.

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Not true, the world's oldest joke was the first Australopithecus to fart in another's face.

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