I have long suspected that British humour is by far and away the best in the world and that Johnny Foreigner just doesn't quite get it. Well now I can begin to understand why. It is all in the origins of the jokes, you see...
"THE world's oldest recorded joke has been traced back to 1900 BC and suggests toilet humour 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."
A 1600 BC gag about a pharaoh, said to be King Snofru, comes second - "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."
Ummm. No, me neither.
But if you ever needed proof that British humour is the best in the world, you can go right back to the very first home grown gag from 10th century:
"What hangs at a man's thigh and wants to poke the hole that it's often poked before? Answer: A key."
I, rather worryingly perhaps, thought that was quite funny.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,24106126-38200,00.html
Labels: James G