The world’s oldest joke is 4,000 years old… and it’s about farts
Humor was, is and will be.
Long before iconic phrases were displayed on stage or screen, someone in ancient Mesopotamia was already trying something that would cause humor and mockery; it turns out that the formula has not changed since then.
Historians date the oldest known joke to the ancient Sumerians, around 1900 BC, and it is preserved on clay tablets written in cuneiform. The line itself goes like this:
“Something which has never occurred since time immemorial; a young woman did not fart in her husband’s lap.”
The proverb was identified in 2008 during a study led by Dr. Paul McDonald at the University of Wolverhampton, which sought to identify the earliest examples of humor across various civilizations. The researchers accomplished this task by defining a joke as something with a clear beginning and climax, and the Sumerian joke met this standard. The Guinness Book of Records later recognized it as the earliest recorded joke.
What makes this discovery special is how much it is still recognizable. Humor is based on bodily functions, a category that continues to emerge across cultures, despite often being labeled rude. Scientists say this type of humor has survived because it draws inspiration from shared human experiences, making it easy to understand even after thousands of years.
Not all early jokes have aged so clearly. Some examples found in the same study, including a Sumerian verse about a dog entering a tavern, are still difficult to interpret because their humor is lost in translation. Against this backdrop, the fart joke stands out because it still touches on the moment.
Credits:
Image:
