Best of Summer: What makes the world’s first bar joke funny? No one knows.

Endless Thread

WBUR

Reddit, Technology

4.2 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 14 July 2023

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What makes the world’s first documented bar joke funny? No one knows.

In a tweet that garnered thousands of responses in March, the Twitter account @DepthsOfWiki posted about a 4,000-year-old proverb written on a clay tablet. The line, which experts believe is a joke from the ancient civilization of Sumer, starts with the set-up, “A dog walks into a tavern.” But the punchline has left scholars and online commenters scratching their heads. The joke’s meaning has been lost, and finding it could reveal something unique about early human civilization.

In this episode, the first of two parts, Endless Thread journeys back in time, attempting to deconstruct the origins of humor and explain an unexplainable joke from the forgotten tablets of the past.

Transcript

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0:00.0	WBUR Podcast, Boston.
0:09.5	Amory.
0:11.0	Benji.
0:13.0	What do you call a dog that does magic?
0:16.0	Benji.
0:18.0	A dog that does magic.
0:22.0	Yeah.
0:26.5	A Labra Kadaberdor.
0:28.5	A Labra Kadaberdor.
0:31.5	That's pretty good.
0:33.5	Tell that one to mine.
0:34.5	Come on, it's great.
0:35.5	Dad.
0:36.5	Ha ha ha ha.
0:38.5	Well, I got some good news because as we kick off,
0:43.0	Summer Jam's 2023, our second episode of Summer Jam's 2023.
0:49.5	You mean endless threads?
0:51.5	Best, most refreshing summer fun episodes of all time?
0:55.5	Yes, as we continue to kick out these Summer Jam's,
0:58.5	I have one that involves jokes and dogs.
1:02.0	And while we work on our upcoming series for you,
1:04.5	coming out in just a few weeks here,
	...

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