William Gurstelle over at Boing Boing blogs today about the Philogelos ('lover of laughter'), which seems to be the oldest surviving joke book:
Online publishing company Yudu has put out a translation by William Berg online, complete with video of old-school British comic Jim Bowen doing a bunch of the jokes (showing off his philogely?). The preface does a great job of evoking the social world of the fourth-century Greek city.
Here's Bowen's take on some of the jokes (much more video in the book!):
Like network television, Byzantine comedy is mostly based on the fortunes and foibles of a gallery of stock characters: the drunk, the miser, the braggart, the sex-starved woman, as well as a classic type known as the scholastikos, variously translated as "pedant," "absent-minded professor," or "egghead."Having had an immodest love for real bad joke books as a young fellow, (especially if they involved cannibals), I'm charmed at how predictably bad the material is, e.g.:
#197. An incompetent schoolteacher was asked who the mother of Priam was. Not knowing the answer, he said: "It's polite to call her Ma'am."Yes, it's mostly raunchy. What did you expect of the people that made all those naked statues? Lots more translations here. If you're a nerd like me and want to check out the Greek, go here. Check out the professor jokes in particular.
#245A. A young man invited into his home frisky old women. He said to his servants: "Mix a drink for one, and have sex with the other, if she wants to." The women spoke up as one: "I'm not thirsty."
Online publishing company Yudu has put out a translation by William Berg online, complete with video of old-school British comic Jim Bowen doing a bunch of the jokes (showing off his philogely?). The preface does a great job of evoking the social world of the fourth-century Greek city.
Here's Bowen's take on some of the jokes (much more video in the book!):
