Jokes, Part I: Sumer Funny, Sumer Not
Endless Thread5 Elo 2022

Jokes, Part I: Sumer Funny, Sumer Not

What makes the world’s first documented bar joke funny? No one knows.

In a tweet that garnered thousands of responses in March, the Twitter account @DepthsOfWiki posted about a 4,000-year-old proverb written on a clay tablet. The line, which experts believe is a joke from the ancient civilization of Sumer, starts with the set-up, “A dog walks into a tavern.” But the punchline has left scholars and online commenters scratching their heads. The joke’s meaning has been lost, and finding it could reveal something unique about early human civilization.

In this episode, the first of two parts, Endless Thread journeys back in time, attempting to deconstruct the origins of humor and explain an unexplainable joke from the forgotten tablets of the past.

****** Credits: This episode was written and produced by Dean Russell. Mixing and sound design by Emily Jankowski. Ben Brock Johnson and Amory Sivertson are the co-hosts.

Jaksot(442)

Hidden Levels Ep. 6: Segagaga

Hidden Levels Ep. 6: Segagaga

The final episode of Hidden Levels explores the story of SEGA developer Tez Okano and the bizarre, meta-game he created: Segagaga. Okano joined SEGA in 1992, witnessing firsthand the company's tumult...

24 Loka 202540min

Hidden Levels Ep. 5: Press B to Touch Grass

Hidden Levels Ep. 5: Press B to Touch Grass

Video games are arguably the antithesis of nature; highly constructed worlds, synthetic, inorganic. If you grew up gaming, you may recall grown-ups telling you to shut down the console, go outside, an...

22 Loka 202541min

Hidden Levels: Surgical Precision (Side Quest)

Hidden Levels: Surgical Precision (Side Quest)

Dr. James "Butch" Rosser was a pioneer in minimally invasive surgery in the 1990s. When he credited his surgical skills to video games, people dismissed him. The prevailing narrative was that kids who...

21 Loka 202524min

Hidden Levels Ep. 4: Machinima

Hidden Levels Ep. 4: Machinima

Machinima — a portmanteau of “machine” and “cinema” — refers to movies filmed inside video games. The art form had a renaissance in the 1990s, and many thought it had a future in Hollywood. Among the ...

18 Loka 202545min

Hidden Levels: Choose Your Player (Side Quest)

Hidden Levels: Choose Your Player (Side Quest)

Today, Stef Sanjati is a creator on YouTube with over half a million subscribers. Her content mostly focuses on her two greatest loves — makeup and gaming — often combining the two with her otherworld...

17 Loka 202531min

Hidden Levels Ep. 3: This Game Wants YOU

Hidden Levels Ep. 3: This Game Wants YOU

For decades, the U.S. Army has been on edge about recruitment, hitting its goals for a few years, only to miss them again. As part of their strategy to combat recruiting concerns, the Army has turned ...

14 Loka 202544min

Hidden Levels Ep. 2: Stick It to 'Em

Hidden Levels Ep. 2: Stick It to 'Em

In this second episode of Hidden Levels, Amory traces the history of the humble-yet-genius joystick — from early 20th century aviation, to 1970s video game consoles like the Atari 2600, to the Nintend...

10 Loka 202541min

Hidden Levels Ep. 1: Mr. Boomshakalaka

Hidden Levels Ep. 1: Mr. Boomshakalaka

Welcome to our all-new collaborative series, "Hidden Levels," in which we team up with 99% Invisible to explore how the world of video games has impacted the world beyond. We’ll dive deep into how gam...

7 Loka 202537min