Even authorities on jokes do not know who uttered the first joke in the world. Holt’s latest book on the subject is silent on the question. But on being “silent”, listen: a talkative barber asked a customer: “How shall I cut your hair?” The customer quipped: “In silence!”
Holt considers joke-telling “the only domain of creative activity where very complex cerebral stimulants, a little bit of nonsense…. will elicit this massive and grossly physiological response.”
Those who have studied the subject seriously have found out the oldest recorded joke was in 1900 BC in Sumeria, now in Iraq. Now humour flourishes with the advancement of urban life. It is urban life that compels the people to keep each other in good humour. The result is urbanity is no more a must in jokes. It is almost a free of all.
Urban life has brought animals including dogs to cities.
Chhotu, 9, a dog could not say much in his defence on August 5, when brought before the executive magistrate, Mr. Shabbier Hasan. The magistrate’s observation was: “The dog looks alright.”
Chhotus’s owner, Mrs. Rajkumari has unearthed a conspiracy to deprive her of 4,000 Sq. feet land by her greedy neighbour. To quote her: “I wonder, how my neighbours can stoop so low to blame a speechless pet to usurp my land worth Rs. 10 lakh. (emphasis added). It has to be recalled that for the said speechlessness of the pet, Chhotu had, in July 2003, been ordered to mount the gallows. Mr. Ramswaroop Das, the SDO had ordered the Purnia municipal council to “kill the violent mad dog.” Later on, a five-member committee appointed by Mrs. Maneka Gandhi found the dog “absolutely normal.”
To their utter surprise, the simple minded Saudis have found out that the local Layla and Majnoos, Wamiqs and Azras have been using the dogs and cats for romantic purposes. To quote, His Eminence, Uthman Al-Uthman the young men were using cats and dogs to make passes at women. I feel educated on the subject. I thought only pigeons as well as cell-phones would be used for the pastime.
South Koreans have a dog cloning company. Its first experiment delivered five utterly healthy puppies. It was done at the request of one, previously known as Joyce Mc-Kinncy, now Bernnan, who, in 1977 faced charges of unlawful imprisonment of a missionary in England.
She had handcuffed him to a bed and enslaved him. Does it not sound extraordinary to you? To me, it does. But it is possible, although I have no first hand knowledge about the subject.
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote on dogs and their female counterparts. After doing the copy, I gave it to my elder son to improve it. He changed the word “bitch”. His argument was the word bitch has unsavoury connotations. I disagreed. Our hot conversation was over-heard by his mother. My only defence was: “As I have never been bitched by any bitch, I don’t think the word has any unsavoury shade of meaning.!”
Asserting so, I saw towards his mother, who thundered-cum-beseeched of me: Look you are today grandfather of seven grand-children. In fact you should feel ashamed of yourself while indulging in this sort of immodesty.”
My submission to her was: “Immodesty? What I am telling him with the entire emphasis at my command is: I have never been bitched by any bitch. What is wrong with this ordinary expression?”