What did humans laugh about 4,000 years ago?
When we think of antiquity, we often imagine ancient civilizations as entirely seriousâbuilding pyramids, inventing law codes, and forging empires. But the ancient world was full of ordinary people dealing with ordinary frustrations, and they coped with them exactly the way we do: by telling jokes.
In 2008, researchers at the University of Wolverhampton embarked on a project to track down the oldest recorded joke in human history. To find it, they had to translate cuneiform scripts etched into Babylonian clay tablets dating back to 1900 BCE.
What they discovered was not a profound commentary on the gods or the universe. It was a fart joke.
The 4,000-Year-Old Punchline
The joke, translated from ancient Sumerian, reads as follows:
"Something which has never occurred since time immemorial; a young woman did not fart in her husbandâs lap."
While the phrasing might seem a bit clumsy in modern English, the comedic structure is timeless. The joke relies on establishing a grand, universal premise ("Something which has never occurred since time immemorial"), setting the listener up for a profound truth, and then subverting that expectation with a relatable, base, and slightly taboo observation regarding bodily functions.
It is the oldest known example of the bait-and-switch format. It proves that scatological humorâthe great equalizer of comedyâhas been making humanity laugh since the dawn of written language.
The Ancient Egyptian Sex Comedy (1600 BCE)
The researchers didn't stop in Sumeria. Moving forward a few centuries, they found the second-oldest recorded joke. This one came from the shores of the Nile, dating back to 1600 BCE in Ancient Egypt.
The joke takes aim at a historical figure: the legendary Pharaoh Snofru (who ruled roughly 1,000 years before the joke was written, making this perhaps the oldest recorded historical satire as well).
"How do you entertain a bored pharaoh? You sail a boatload of young women dressed only in fishing nets down the Nile and urge the pharaoh to go catch a fish."
This ancient quip provides fascinating insight into Egyptian society. While pharaohs were considered living gods, this joke demonstrates that the populace was not above mocking the royal court's legendary decadence and the perceived lecherous nature of powerful men.
The First "Yo Mama" Joke (1500 BCE)
As we move slightly further into the Bronze Age, we arrive back in Babylon for what is believed to be the earliest recorded iteration of the maternal insult, or the "Yo Mama" joke.
Discovered on a tablet dating back to 1500 BCE, the text is partially obscured or damaged, leaving the punchline slightly ambiguous, but the setup is clear:
"...of your mother is by the one who has intercourse with her. What/who is it?"
Scholars generally agree that the answer was an insult aimed at the listener's mother's fidelity. It highlights a universal truth regarding human conflict and verbal sparring: insulting an opponent's mother has been the go-to tactic to provoke anger and establish dominance for over three millennia.
The Roman Anthology: The Philogelos (4th Century AD)
While scattered jokes exist in ancient tablets, the oldest surviving collection of jokes is the Philogelos ("The Laughter Lover"), a Greek manuscript compiled in the 4th Century AD.
This joke book contains 265 jokes categorizing the classic comedic archetypes of the Roman world: the absent-minded professor (the "scholastikos"), the glutton, the fool, and the charlatan doctor.
Many of the jokes in the Philogelos are still told today, almost word-for-word.
- An absent-minded professor goes to the doctor. The doctor says, "Your heart is beating too fast, and your pulse is irregular." The professor replies, "That is impossible! My pulse cannot be irregular; I always walk to a very steady beat!"
- A man visits a barber. The barber asks, "How would you like your hair cut, sir?" The man replies, "In silence."
The universality of laughter
The discovery of these ancient jokes is a profound archaeological and sociological triumph. We often struggle to connect with the people of antiquity. They seem distant, separated from us by strange religions, extinct languages, and unimaginably different daily lives.
But the oldest recorded jokes collapse that distance entirely. When we look at a clay tablet from 1900 BCE and realize that a Babylonian teenager was laughing at the exact same bodily humor that a 13-year-old laughs at today, the ancient world suddenly becomes deeply, intimately human.
They laughed at sex, at authority, at farting, and at each other's mothers. Across four millennia, the human race hasn't really changed its material at all. Styles change, references fade, but some thingsâapparentlyâare eternal.
According to historians at the University of Wolverhampton, the oldest recorded joke in human history dates back to 1900 BC. It was found on a clay tablet from the ancient Sumerian civilization (modern-day Iraq).
The joke is a proverb that reads:
"Something which has never occurred since time immemorial; a young woman did not fart in her husband's lap."
Why It Was Funny Then
Okay, it might not make you roll on the floor today. But context is everything. 1. Universality: Flatulence is a biological universal. Everybody does it, and it's always been slightly taboo or embarrassing. 2. Intimacy: The joke plays on the intimacy of marriage. It suggests that despite all romantic poetry, realistic human bodily functions are unavoidable. 3. Irony: The setup ("Something which has never occurred since time immemorial") sounds grand and epic, like the beginning of a myth. The punchline ("a young woman farting") is crude and domestic. This juxtaposition (High vs. Low) is a classic comedic structure that remains popular today.
Other Ancient Contenders
The Sumerians weren't alone. * 1600 BC (Egypt): A joke about how to entertain a bored Pharaoh (it involves women in fishing netsâsome things never change). * 10th Century AD (Britain): The oldest British joke is a riddle: "What hangs at a man's thigh and wants to poke the hole that it's often poked before?" Answer: A key. (Get your mind out of the gutter!)
Conclusion
It is strangely comforting to know that nearly 4,000 years ago, people were sitting around laughing at the exact same bodily functions we laugh at today. Technology advances, empires fall, but a well-timed fart joke lasts forever.