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 Philogelos- the oldest joke book

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Triceratops
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Triceratops

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PostSubject: Philogelos- the oldest joke book   Philogelos- the oldest joke book EmptySat 19 May 2012, 08:18

The oldest surviving joke book in the world;

http://publishing.yudu.com/Library/Au7bv/PhilogelosTheLaughAd/resources/index.htm

A sample of what to expect;

Student:"Doctor, when I wake up I feel dizzy,but half an hour later I'm fine"

Doctor:"Try waking up half an hour later"
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Vizzer
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Vizzer

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PostSubject: Re: Philogelos- the oldest joke book   Philogelos- the oldest joke book EmptySat 25 Jan 2014, 22:02

It's noteworthy that the book lists three different places which are the subject of ethnic/regional jokes rather than just one. They are Cumae a Greek colony near present-day Naples in Italy, Abdera a city in Thrace, and Sidon in Lebanon. Even more noteworthy, however, is the fact that they never seem to appear together in any of the jokes - e.g. "A Cumaean, an Abderite and a Sidonian walk into a pub..."
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ferval
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ferval

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PostSubject: Re: Philogelos- the oldest joke book   Philogelos- the oldest joke book EmptySat 25 Jan 2014, 23:31

Mary Beard has a new book coming out about Roman laughter, there's a link to the first chapter on this page.
http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520277168
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Gilgamesh of Uruk
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Gilgamesh of Uruk

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PostSubject: Re: Philogelos- the oldest joke book   Philogelos- the oldest joke book EmptySun 26 Jan 2014, 14:21

I wonder if this is what Lindsay Davis was referring to in "Last act in Palmyra" - if so it's rather an anachronism, isn't it?
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nordmann
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PostSubject: Re: Philogelos- the oldest joke book   Philogelos- the oldest joke book EmptySun 29 Jun 2014, 10:00

Mary Beard's book mentioned by ferval above receives a belated plug in the Guardian this weekend. Beard's own article mentions much about the Philogelos anthology but goes further and examines the history of humour and its apparent cultural boundaries, interestingly arriving at a conclusion that many of the jokes from the manuscript would receive a louder guffaw from modern audiences than ever they might have received in antiquity, if only for their absolute corniness (a characteristic Beard also suggests may have been present even by Roman times when some of these jokes were already a few centuries old). There's a clip from Jim Bowen's stand-up performance based on this content from a few years ago to reinforce this view.

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