What is the oldest form of humor?

by eimaiagyristokefali
kookingpot

Fart jokes.

No, seriously.

Now, I'm not entirely sure what categories you're dividing "forms of humor" into, but the oldest recorded joke is from 1900 BC Sumer and goes like this:

"Something which has never occurred since time immemorial; a young woman did not fart in her husband's lap."

Another very old joke comes from 1600 BC Egypt, attributed to Pharaoh Snofru:

"How do you entertain a bored pharaoh? You sail a boatload of young women dressed only in fishing nets down the Nile and urge the pharaoh to go catch a fish."

The study was conducted by students and faculty at the University of Wolverhampton under the auspices of Dr. Paul McDonald, and was commissioned by the TV channel Dave in an attempt to understand the ancient origins of humor.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2008/07/31/uk-britain-joke-life-idUKL129052420080731

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7536918.stm

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1040412/Its-way-told-em-Researchers-unearth-worlds-oldest-joke-dates-2000-BC.html

MrCoolCol

I'm going to preface this with stating that humor around the world is a very different concept. Ever watch a British television show and think "I don't know why people are laughing at this, it isn't funny". But because humor is such an ingrained and influential aspect of a culture it differs where in the world you're looking. Now to your question - I may be wrong, and correct me if I am, but I seem to remember reading a text from ancient Greece which in today's thinking would be considered satire. To my knowledge that script is generally considered to be the first [at least written] form of humor that we know of. But comedy in the form of theater was an integral part of Greek society in the 6^th century BCE

Searocksandtrees

Hi, this may not provide the survey-level information you're looking for, but if you're interested in various examples, check this out