Jokes, Part I: Sumer Funny, Sumer Not

Endless Thread

WBUR

Reddit, Technology

4.2 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 5 August 2022

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

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.

****** Credits: This episode was written and produced by Dean Russell. Mixing and sound design by Emily Jankowski. Ben Brock Johnson and Amory Sivertson are the co-hosts.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Support for Endless Thread comes from Command Line Heroes, an original podcast from Red Hat.
0:06.0	Season 8 of Command Line Heroes covers the robots that are in our midst and the determined dreamers who bring them to life.
0:13.0	8 episodes compare the promise of science fiction to the reality of robots today.
0:18.0	Search for Command Line Heroes anywhere you listen to podcasts.
0:23.0	Soar into a new age of adventure with World of Warcraft Dragonflight.
0:29.0	The dragons of Azeroth have returned to the Dragon Isles and it's up to you to help them defend their home.
0:35.0	Discover four new sprawling zones, harness the powers of the direct fear of ochre, an all-new race and class combo,
0:43.0	and master the skies through the art of Dragonwriting.
0:46.0	Available November 28th on PC and Mac, learn more at worldofwarcraft.com.
0:53.0	WBWR's last scene is back with surprising news stories about people, places, and things that have gone missing,
1:00.0	all told by tenacious public radio storytellers who refuse to let mysteries go unsolved.
1:06.0	Don't miss season 3, out now. Follow last scene where every listen to podcasts.
1:12.0	WBWR Podcast, Boston.
1:21.0	Let's do the jokes, let's make some jokes.
1:27.0	Knock, knock.
1:28.0	Who's there?
1:29.0	Oh God, I didn't have anything to say after that.
1:33.0	A few weeks ago, Amory and I hopped in my car and headed south from Boston.
1:39.0	We had jokes on the brain, sort of.
1:42.0	You still haven't finished your joke?
1:44.0	No, I'm trying to think of any jokes I actually know, but like, in fairness, I was driving.
1:49.0	We were on our way to Philadelphia in search of this one particular joke.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from WBUR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of WBUR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.