The Sumerians had an interesting sense of humor.
Sumer? I barely knew her! Nyuk nyuk nyuk.
Anyway, it sounds like a punchline rather than a complete joke. The dog is getting into some kind of shenanigans and finally, exasperated, says “fuck it, I’ll open this one!”
It was funnier in the original Klingon.
So, a dog goes into a bar, says that it’s too dark, and suggests opening a door.
It’s doubtful if it’s a joke at all. It is also described as a proverb.
My guess - the point is that sometimes a problem has an obvious solution. And even a dog might spot it.
Maybe ‘dog’ isn’t even the animal, perhaps used as a slang term for a particular class of person.
A fool laughs at a joke three times. First when he hears it, the second time when he tells it to someone else, the third time when he finally understands it. It’s no surprise to me that archaeologists coming upon text they didn’t understand assumed it’s a joke. Quite obviously this is not a joke as no one has laughed at it at even once.
It was found with a bunch of other tablets, all of which were jokes.
Hmm, I was going to go with Cowtools, but Sumeria, Sumahria.
Huh. Obviously, Dr_Pepperwinkle has been at this for longer than any of us knew.
Do you have a cite for that?
Wiki say they were proverbs, not jokes.
Obligatory XKCD reference
Nope. It was a large bowl with multiple straws. Sort of like a hookah but for beer instead of smoke:
Maybe it’s an abridged version of a literal shaggy dog story.
I remember a radio commercial where a comedian is telling punchlines without setups, because the audience has already heard the jokes, so he’s saving time. So, maybe there’s a whole story between the dog and “opening this one” that was omitted, because impatient Sumerians preferred just the punchline.
Obviously, there’s a line missing:
”…for me to poop on.”
I have read somewhere that “bar” also meant “brothel” and “eye” could refer to a bodily orifice, and by extension “opening an eye” could be an idiom for a sex act.
So: dog goes into a brothel and says “I can’t see a thing, I’ll open this one.” (“this one” implicitly suggesting “opening an eye”).
The literal meaning is opening the eye to see better, but idiomatically it could mean doing brothel-type sex things. So in that interpretation, if correct, then it’s just a really lame (and dirty) pun.
Yes, this was my take on it, it’s the old mis-interpretation of “walking into” something. The joke is the dog just walking around with his eyes closed, as dogs do.
Could be. Having to carve your jokes onto stone tablets definitely encourages abbreviation wherever possible.
One of the contributing factors to the disappearance of Sumer was their horrible jokes.
If I were telling what this joke might be I’d have my eyes shut, hands out in front groping about.
A man walks into a brothel and says “it’s too dark to see but I’ll take this one”.
With a big smile as I deliver the punch line. For all we no this was a well known joke at the time. So it could be a joke, possibly the guy who knew how to push a stylus into clay or whatever wasn’t good at telling jokes or didn’t get it. It’s close to a joke, probably needs the nuanced translation.
I think if I were telling it I’d pick a better word for ‘brothel’ to use in joke if one were available. Jokes work better when told in the vernacular.
Well, I’m not dumb but I can’t understand,
Why she walked like a woman but talked like a man.
Or possibly the missing part of the joke comes after this, when we find out what the dog opened, and penis (or whatever) ensues.