oldest human jokes

In response to my “jokes” post from earlier, Robert Jackson posts A LIST OF THE OLDEST RECORDED HUMAN JOKES. Be forewarned that sex and toilet material plays a large role in the list, if that’s not your preference when it comes to humor. (It’s not mine either, but that’s outweighed in the present case by the historical interest of the examples.)

I don’t think I’d count the riddle of the Sphinx as a joke, however. If a Sphinx is visiting the plague upon a city, and the one who solves its riddle ends up in a tragedy of patricide and incest, I can’t imagine at which moment anyone would have laughed.

None of them made me laugh out loud, but I suppose 9 and 10 would have come the closest.