World's Oldest Known Joke

Seems to involve flatulence and sexism. Go figure.

Here are the other 9 of the ten oldest.

Here we see one as a riddle with a bonus for those who have a loathing of lawyers:

3. Three ox drivers from Adab were thirsty: one owned the ox, the other owned the cow and the other owned the wagon's load. The owner of the ox refused to get water because he feared his ox would be eaten by a lion; the owner of the cow refused because he thought his cow might wander off into the desert; the owner of the wagon refused because he feared his load would be stolen. So they all went. In their absence the ox made love to the cow which gave birth to a calf which ate the wagon's load. Problem: Who owns the calf?! (1200 BC)

Here we see that love has indeed always been blind:

4. A woman who was blind in one eye has been married to a man for 20 years. When he found another woman he said to her, "I shall divorce you because you are said to be blind in one eye." And she answered him: "Have you just discovered that after 20 years of marriage!?" (Egyptian circa 1100 BC)

Here is one for the teacher/parent in each of us:

9. Wishing to teach his donkey not to eat, a pedant did not offer him any food. When the donkey died of hunger, he said "I've had a great loss. Just when he had learned not to eat, he died." (Dated to the Philogelos 4th /5th Century AD)

Lastly from that list I now know that the reason I have had church giggles at the barber is no longer a credit to my brother's wit:

10. Asked by the court barber how he wanted his hair cut, the king replied: "In silence." (Collected in the Philogelos or "Laughter-Lover" the oldest extant jest book and compiled in the 4th/5th Century AD)

You never know. The local and wonderful Sam Clemens was ripped off on the Calaveras frog tale through deep and distant time.

(read that if you have a chance, it's wonderful. Yes, I just invoked the silly term "wonderful.")

I read the Twain piece as part of a great little book (The Jumping Frog: In English. Then in French. Then Clawed Back into a Civilized Language Once More by Patient, Unremunerated Toil) I picked up years ago in which he addressed a Frenchman who panned his humorous tail in the context of a horrendous translation.

"Backed me into a corner"

The copyright is out so you would do well to click over and read every last bit of each, dammitsothere.