What joke could you take to any human society in history or prehistory, translate it directly into the local language, and get a laugh?
I feel like dirty jokes are a good choice, because if there’s one thing that’s been constant since the beginning, it’s sex. But it needs to be a joke that doesn’t refer to any specific object or concept that might not be familiar to hunters and gatherers from 5000 BC…
Maybe jokes about how big one’s penis is? I kind of assume that penis size has always been a point of pride, although I suppose I have no actual evidence for that.
But many sexual mores and customs are very culture-specific.
It doesn’t directly answer your question, but are you aware of the research into the “World’s funniest joke”?
How about: My brother thinks he’s a chicken. We’d correct him, but we need the eggs.
Or: If you were my husband (mate, child, etc.), I’d give you poison… If you were my wife (mate, parent, etc.), I’d take it.
How about: Hey, Stupid, where can I get some water?.. That’s funny, how did you know my name is Stupid?.. I just guessed… Well, then guess where the water is.
Probably OK, but to be nitpicking I could say that possibly in some languages the expression for how a haircut turns out may not include the manner or circumstances in which the cutting is done. In English, if I asked “How would you like your eggs?”, the answer “In silence” wouldn’t be funny. Also, in early societies people may not have gotten haircuts.
Aristophanes, in an ancient Greek comedy (I think The Trojan Women) had a character talk about being so horny that his erection stretched from Athens to Sparta, or whatever. This could be used in any culture, with the cities of course being replaced by two far apart locations.
You’re overlooking that most “dirty” jokes derive their humor from something other than the sexual content. The sex is just a gratuitous way to get the attention of the audience.
You could use a variation of the old sneakers and bear joke: Two guys are out in the woods or jungle or desert or whatever.
First: Why are you practicing your running?
Second: In case we see a bear (lion, jaguar, or whatever).
First: You know you can’t outrun a bear (etc.).
Second: I don’t have to outrun the bear (etc.), I just have to outrun you.
Or: If I knew I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself.
Or: First prize is having a meeting with X, second prize is two meetings.
I wonder if cavemen would have gotten “pull my finger”, or whether the connection between pulling something and something else happening, which we take for granted in the post-machine age, would have been just puzzling to them.
I thought about that, but it seems to be that there’s enough meta-humor there (ie, the reason it’s funny is that you expect there to be a punchline, and then there isn’t) that it might not make sense in all cultures. I mean, even if there were great traditions of joke telling in (random culture X) it would have to be Q/A style jokes of the form “A: why did something weird seeming happen? B: I don’t know, why? A: Because of something witty and unexpected.” for the chicken crossing the road to be funny.
I’m not sure about that. I was trying to think of a dirty joke that seemed totally non-culturally-specific, and I came up with a few that were at least close. There’s one where the punchline is “if we find my keys, we can DRIVE out”; which obviously would need to be modified, but there’s nothing culturally specific about the actual humor of the joke. Another one is the “I have a penis the size of a 3-year-old” joke, but I suppose that depends on a particular piece of phrasing being ambiguous in a particular way.
Another one that I think would have worked well going back at least to the ancient Greek days is the “to prove your worthiness you must complete two tasks… kill the tiger behind door #1 and seduce the virginal maiden behind door #2” joke, but I’m not sure how well that would work without a hierarchical enough society that there would be people trying to prove their worthiness to join elite organizations (or what have you).
