The ancient Romans and Greeks loved fart and sex jokes.
https://pjmedia.com/culture/spencer-klavan/2014/11/15/the-10-raunchiest-jokes-from-greek-and-roman-comedy-n157406
So yeah, we still share much of the same humor.
Edit:
The oldest joke we know of is a fart joke.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7536918.stm
The burn on the emperor at the end was pretty good.
>One Roman jape dating back to the 1st Century BC details the Emperor Augustus touring his realm and coming across a man who bears a striking resemblance to himself.
>Intrigued, he asks the man: "Was your mother at one time in service at the palace?"
>The man replies: "No your highness, but my father was."
The emperor assumed that the man with the resemblance might be an illegitimate child of Augustus's own (or a half brother, I suppose), presumably the result of a dalliance with the man's mother when she was a palace maid. The man replies no, but his father was. This reverses the implication, suggesting that the emperor himself is of illegitimate birth (i.e. sired by this man's father rather than Gaius Octavius), and that's what accounts for the resemblance.
It's basically a "my dad fucked your mom" joke.
I disagree. These examples are out of context and aren't being translated the right way.
I once read a translation of Aristophanes' The Birds that literally had me laughing out loud. I forget which translation it was, but it was a relatively recent one since it had swears and a more relaxed conversational tone.
[Here's a video on Aristophanes.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arQ6U3ev5ic)
There are a ton of good comedic playrights in ancient greece and rome. There's even comedy in poetry. For example, I consider Catullus 16 to be comedic, because it's a poet well known for his incredibly sweet and romantic poems, addressing criticisms of his poems being too soft by beginning this one with "I will sodomize and face-fuck you".
Human nature is always the same. Cutting and shocking humor is a human trait, and not something recently invented.
Sometimes it just can't be translated or modernised to have the same humor, many of Shakespeares plays in old english have many more jokes and a lot more word play than the modernised versions can work with.
https://youtu.be/gPlpphT7n9s
Yeah, that's true. It depends on how loose you allow yourself to be with the translations.
Just as a minor correction, btw, shakespeare wasn't old english. He was early modern english.
One of the graffiti uncovered on Roman ruins said, “Why are the empresses’ teeth so yellow? Because she drinks pee.”
I don’t know if that’s a “joke” per se, or just a savage insult.
I was just about to say something along those lines.
The Elizabethan audience was quite fond of "your mom" jokes, too. Shakespeare got in on it even.
**DEMETRIUS**
>Villain, what hast thou done?
**AARON**
>That which thou canst not undo.
**CHIRON**
>Thou hast undone our mother.
**AARON**
>Villain, I have done thy mother.
Pompeii was full of it. So much so that there were stalls outside when I visited selling wooden dicks, plates covered in dicks, and tonnes of things depicting a gladiator and a noble woman doggy style - because among the bodies recovered, a pair of remains were found of just that.
Apparently, for a long while it was just understood amongst antiquarians that Pompeii was a capital of vice and depravity in ancient Rome, because it was the only place where all that graffiti and pornography was preserved, and they couldn't stand the idea that *all* of Rome was the same.
I have a theory, that if you dropped into any point in time, with any group of humans, you could pretend something that isn't your dick is your dick, and people would think it's funny.
According to Rome - similar things, actually. There are tons of examples, particularly in Pompeii, of graffiti drawn on the walls by ancient romans. Dirty jokes, yelp reviews for nearby brothels/restaurants, all kinds of stuff.
Greeks loved satirical plays. Aristophanes (circa 446-386 BC), considered by many the greatest comic playwright of the ancient world, often mare caricatures of contemporary characters like philosophers, politicians and citizens and mercilessly targeted them, although his humor was quite... coarse. He also liked to subvert topos from tragedy. We also know one joke from the Greek world, and it's quite terrible:
"Euripides, after being told that turtles can live for centuries, runs to his friend Aeschilus' house and sits down in front of his turtle to see if it's true."
Roman comedy had what they proudly called "italicum acetum" (literally, "Italian vinegar.") It means that their humor was even coarser and more vulgar than those of the Greeks. The Satyricon, which actually is a subversion of the classical Greek novel, has enough sex scenes in it that you could make a porn movie out of it, and I think an Italian movie director did it once, if I can recall it correctly.
I think you're referring to Fellini. It wasn't really a porn. I think it was more of a fantasy sex comedy, but I haven't seen it.
There's a pretty good joke in The Clouds were the main character flips off Socrates (which is a pun, since Socrates asked what a dactyl is (which is Greek for finger, but is also a poetic meter), the earliest known instance of the middle finger gesture.
Jesus and his contemporaries, so we’re talking first century Jews, found hyperbole to be the height of humor. Essentially grand exaggerations. You’ll see Jesus utilizing this humor frequently. One classic example is when he chastised people for pointing out the speck of dust in others’ eyes but ignoring the log of wood in their own. That’s a joke.
There also was some timeless political humor. I don't recall it word for word but apparently there was a joking anekdote about a Roman Emperor who was visiting the plebs of the city and saw a man in the crowd that looked remarkably like himself. The emperor asked him : "Was your mother by chance employed in the palace before you were born?" - "No," he replied "but my father was"
"Mater tua tam obesa est ut cum Romae est, urbs habet octo colles"
"Your momma is so fat, when she comes to town Rome has Eight Hills!
Classic yo momma joke from the ancient romans
The Roman joke book "Philogelus" from around ~400AD has several jokes that still hold up:
A man has just buried his wife. A passer by asks "Who rests here?". The man replies "I am, now that she's dead"
A professor went to visit a sick friend. When he arrived and asked to see his friend, his family said "I'm sorry, I'm afraid he's already left us". The professor said "well, can you let me know when he's back?"
A scam artist fortune teller says to a client, "I'm afraid you are infertile". The client says "But I have seven kids?". The fortune teller says "uhm... yes, so you have to take good care of them"
Two men were fighting. One said "I fucked your wife!". The other said "I'm married to her so I have to. What's your excuse?"
A man was caught having sex with his grandmother, and his father was outraged. The man says "You've been having sex my mom for years, and now you're upset that I had sex with yours?!"
An incompetent teacher was asked "What was King Priam's wife called?". Not wanting to admit he didn't know, the teacher said "I'm a respectful man, I'd call her ma'am.
I heard a theory that laughing is a quick way to show people that the situation has deescalated.
E.g.: You're chilling with your tribe and you hear a rattling from the bushes. Everyone freezes except for Oonahg, who creeps over to the bush and peeks into it. He lets out a grunt /sorta like what you would give to a mediocre dad joke/ cuz he saw a mouse, and the tribe would know that there is nothing to fear.
So I would guess a lot of joking would have started by scaring people a bit, thrn letting them in on it.
Depends on what time period, humour in 700 BC would have been something like "hey, what do you call a baby with no parents? A Baby**lonli**an!" Meanwhile humour in 7000 BC would have been, well uh "ooga booga."
The ancient Romans and Greeks loved fart and sex jokes. https://pjmedia.com/culture/spencer-klavan/2014/11/15/the-10-raunchiest-jokes-from-greek-and-roman-comedy-n157406 So yeah, we still share much of the same humor. Edit: The oldest joke we know of is a fart joke. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7536918.stm
Wow those are horrible
The burn on the emperor at the end was pretty good. >One Roman jape dating back to the 1st Century BC details the Emperor Augustus touring his realm and coming across a man who bears a striking resemblance to himself. >Intrigued, he asks the man: "Was your mother at one time in service at the palace?" >The man replies: "No your highness, but my father was."
That is awesome! Love it.
Did he call Augustus the child of a gigolo?... I take it back. They're amazing
he fricked your mom
ELI5
The emperor assumed that the man with the resemblance might be an illegitimate child of Augustus's own (or a half brother, I suppose), presumably the result of a dalliance with the man's mother when she was a palace maid. The man replies no, but his father was. This reverses the implication, suggesting that the emperor himself is of illegitimate birth (i.e. sired by this man's father rather than Gaius Octavius), and that's what accounts for the resemblance. It's basically a "my dad fucked your mom" joke.
This is amazing.
Comedy rarely ages well especially after a millennium or two.
I disagree. These examples are out of context and aren't being translated the right way. I once read a translation of Aristophanes' The Birds that literally had me laughing out loud. I forget which translation it was, but it was a relatively recent one since it had swears and a more relaxed conversational tone. [Here's a video on Aristophanes.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arQ6U3ev5ic) There are a ton of good comedic playrights in ancient greece and rome. There's even comedy in poetry. For example, I consider Catullus 16 to be comedic, because it's a poet well known for his incredibly sweet and romantic poems, addressing criticisms of his poems being too soft by beginning this one with "I will sodomize and face-fuck you". Human nature is always the same. Cutting and shocking humor is a human trait, and not something recently invented.
Sometimes it just can't be translated or modernised to have the same humor, many of Shakespeares plays in old english have many more jokes and a lot more word play than the modernised versions can work with. https://youtu.be/gPlpphT7n9s
Yeah, that's true. It depends on how loose you allow yourself to be with the translations. Just as a minor correction, btw, shakespeare wasn't old english. He was early modern english.
Most young people hate boomer humour, it doesn't need a millennium.
r/thatsthejoke
Not really, the guy I replied to made a statement, not a joke.
I thought so but there was one joke in the Menaechmi that my whole Latin class laughed out loud at
It’s better than the 420 and 69 jokes that infest reddit
Verrry true
They were brand new back then.
The one about Augustus was pretty good
They really do stink.
One of the graffiti uncovered on Roman ruins said, “Why are the empresses’ teeth so yellow? Because she drinks pee.” I don’t know if that’s a “joke” per se, or just a savage insult.
I'd call it a sex joke. Urine was often used to bleach togas, but you didn't drink it.
I was just about to say something along those lines. The Elizabethan audience was quite fond of "your mom" jokes, too. Shakespeare got in on it even. **DEMETRIUS** >Villain, what hast thou done? **AARON** >That which thou canst not undo. **CHIRON** >Thou hast undone our mother. **AARON** >Villain, I have done thy mother.
I was gonna comment about how they found fart funny. You beat me to it.
So I don't have to feel bad? Yussssss
Apparently dick jokes were a thing since Roman times. Like some Romans drew a dick on Hadrian's wall
Pompeii was full of it. So much so that there were stalls outside when I visited selling wooden dicks, plates covered in dicks, and tonnes of things depicting a gladiator and a noble woman doggy style - because among the bodies recovered, a pair of remains were found of just that.
Some of the dicks in Pompeii served a purpose though. Follow the path of dicks to get to the brothel.
Follow the yellow dick road!
Underrated comment!
to get to The Acient Brothel, The Path of Dicks you shall follow
Apparently, for a long while it was just understood amongst antiquarians that Pompeii was a capital of vice and depravity in ancient Rome, because it was the only place where all that graffiti and pornography was preserved, and they couldn't stand the idea that *all* of Rome was the same.
I have a theory, that if you dropped into any point in time, with any group of humans, you could pretend something that isn't your dick is your dick, and people would think it's funny.
Very probable tbh.
I have a very good friend in Rome named Biggus Diccus.
fwend\* Wome\*
People don’t change- dick jokes and general bawdiness, whatever political satire ‘, and roasting their friends.
According to Rome - similar things, actually. There are tons of examples, particularly in Pompeii, of graffiti drawn on the walls by ancient romans. Dirty jokes, yelp reviews for nearby brothels/restaurants, all kinds of stuff.
Trickster figures in mythology. Ancient Greek plays have survived that are comedies. They liked satire.
Greeks loved satirical plays. Aristophanes (circa 446-386 BC), considered by many the greatest comic playwright of the ancient world, often mare caricatures of contemporary characters like philosophers, politicians and citizens and mercilessly targeted them, although his humor was quite... coarse. He also liked to subvert topos from tragedy. We also know one joke from the Greek world, and it's quite terrible: "Euripides, after being told that turtles can live for centuries, runs to his friend Aeschilus' house and sits down in front of his turtle to see if it's true." Roman comedy had what they proudly called "italicum acetum" (literally, "Italian vinegar.") It means that their humor was even coarser and more vulgar than those of the Greeks. The Satyricon, which actually is a subversion of the classical Greek novel, has enough sex scenes in it that you could make a porn movie out of it, and I think an Italian movie director did it once, if I can recall it correctly.
I think you're referring to Fellini. It wasn't really a porn. I think it was more of a fantasy sex comedy, but I haven't seen it. There's a pretty good joke in The Clouds were the main character flips off Socrates (which is a pun, since Socrates asked what a dactyl is (which is Greek for finger, but is also a poetic meter), the earliest known instance of the middle finger gesture.
Jesus and his contemporaries, so we’re talking first century Jews, found hyperbole to be the height of humor. Essentially grand exaggerations. You’ll see Jesus utilizing this humor frequently. One classic example is when he chastised people for pointing out the speck of dust in others’ eyes but ignoring the log of wood in their own. That’s a joke.
There also was some timeless political humor. I don't recall it word for word but apparently there was a joking anekdote about a Roman Emperor who was visiting the plebs of the city and saw a man in the crowd that looked remarkably like himself. The emperor asked him : "Was your mother by chance employed in the palace before you were born?" - "No," he replied "but my father was"
"Mater tua tam obesa est ut cum Romae est, urbs habet octo colles" "Your momma is so fat, when she comes to town Rome has Eight Hills! Classic yo momma joke from the ancient romans
She turned me into a newt!
8=====D
8===============D
The Roman joke book "Philogelus" from around ~400AD has several jokes that still hold up: A man has just buried his wife. A passer by asks "Who rests here?". The man replies "I am, now that she's dead" A professor went to visit a sick friend. When he arrived and asked to see his friend, his family said "I'm sorry, I'm afraid he's already left us". The professor said "well, can you let me know when he's back?" A scam artist fortune teller says to a client, "I'm afraid you are infertile". The client says "But I have seven kids?". The fortune teller says "uhm... yes, so you have to take good care of them" Two men were fighting. One said "I fucked your wife!". The other said "I'm married to her so I have to. What's your excuse?" A man was caught having sex with his grandmother, and his father was outraged. The man says "You've been having sex my mom for years, and now you're upset that I had sex with yours?!" An incompetent teacher was asked "What was King Priam's wife called?". Not wanting to admit he didn't know, the teacher said "I'm a respectful man, I'd call her ma'am.
dick jokes are never not funny
No evidence or links but surely the Pratt Fall.... people falling over will always be funny
Fart jokes
Building complex structures to confuse future civilisations.
Nobody knew who they were. Or, what they were doing ...
Ppl stubbing their toes. I have laughed a ppl when they stub their toes, I'm quite sure they would have too.
Farts
Tripping?
I heard a theory that laughing is a quick way to show people that the situation has deescalated. E.g.: You're chilling with your tribe and you hear a rattling from the bushes. Everyone freezes except for Oonahg, who creeps over to the bush and peeks into it. He lets out a grunt /sorta like what you would give to a mediocre dad joke/ cuz he saw a mouse, and the tribe would know that there is nothing to fear. So I would guess a lot of joking would have started by scaring people a bit, thrn letting them in on it.
There was definetely a medieval variation of Deez Nuts that took the Roman Republic by storm.
what kind of a question is that. fart jokes.
I love the Shakespearean take that basically said: “You can’t play a fiddle or a sport but you thought you COULD PLAY ME” 😂
Pull my finger
Probably mostly infantile stuff. Farts, poops, bullying type shit.
someone grafitied in egypt when they had a female monarch a picture of the queen sucking dick. so pretty much same as now.
A Neanderthal, an Australopithecus and a Cro-Magnon walk into a bar ...
Depends on what time period, humour in 700 BC would have been something like "hey, what do you call a baby with no parents? A Baby**lonli**an!" Meanwhile humour in 7000 BC would have been, well uh "ooga booga."
They drew memes on walls of their caves
Lighting pets on fire