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World's oldest joke traced back to 1900 BC

The world’s oldest recorded joke has been traced back to 1900 BC and suggests toilet humor was as popular with the ancients as it is today.

It is a saying of the Sumerians, who lived in what is now southern Iraq and goes: “Something which has never occurred since time immemorial; a young woman did not fart in her husband’s lap.”

It heads the world’s oldest top 10 joke list published by the University of Wolverhampton this week.

The oldest British joke dates back to the 10th Century and reveals the bawdy face of the Anglo-Saxons - “What hangs at a man’s thigh and wants to poke the hole that it’s often poked before? Answer: A key.”

The study was commissioned by television channel Dave, the so-called “home of witty banter”. The top 10 oldest jokes can be viewed at www.dave-tv.co.uk.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .