Have bodily functions always been funny across history and cross culturally?

by TangerineHippo
TheFairyGuineaPig

Yes! 'Something which has never occurred since time immemorial; a young woman did not fart in her husband's lap' is the oldest known joke, dating back to 1900 BC. Toilet humour was clearly popular even then, in Sumer.

Then we have sex jokes. For example, 'Man is even more eager to copulate than a donkey - his purse is what restrains him.' That's Ancient Egyptian humour for you.

We have a lot more sex jokes from Philogelos, the oldest joke book we know of, from Ancient Greece. For example, one goes: 'An intellectual during the night ravished his grandmother and for this got a beating from his father. He complained: "You've been mounting my mother for a long time, without suffering any consequences from me. And now you're mad that you found me screwing your mother for the first time ever!'

Also, it had hernia jokes. 'An Abderite who was a eunuch had the misfortune to develop a hernia'. The most common hernia for a man to get was when a bit of the intestine entered the scrotum which a eunuch wouldn't have (being a eunuch). This is a joke about Abderites being stupid/unlucky and also because I guess Ancient Greeks thought eunuchs getting hernias were funny? Idk.

There are jokes about bad breath (multiple jokes). One goes like this, 'A man with bad breath, kissing his wife over and over, said: "My Lady, my Hera, my Aphrodite." And she said, turning away: "My - o Zeus an ozeus!'. An ozeus was a person who bad breath, like her husband.

Later on, we get some fun Old English toilet humour, from The Chaucer. In the Miller's Tale, one part goes: This Nicholas anon leet fle a fart,

As greet as it had been a thonder-dent,

That with the strook he was almoost yblent;

And he was redy with his iren hoot,

And Nicholas amydde the ers he smoot,

And that translates to: This Nicholas just then let fly a fart,

As loud as it had been a thunder-clap,

And well-nigh blinded Absalom, poor chap;

But he was ready with his iron hot,

And Nicholas right in the arse he got.

Not forgetting the good old Romans, this is some graffiti (probably meant to be an insulting joke) on a pottery shop's wall: Lesbianus, you defecate and you write, ‘Hello, everyone!’

And another, uh, profound saying, written in the basilica: The one who buggers a fire burns his penis. I suppose it's telling the truth.

So throughout history, it seems that some people are perpetually 10 years old.