Roman jokes explained

Type:Rhetorical device
Target:Romans

Ancient Roman jokes, as described by Cicero and Quintilian, are best employed as a rhetorical device.[1] Many of them are apparently taken from real-life trials conducted by famous advocates, such as Cicero. Jokes were also found scrawled upon washroom walls of Pompeii as graffiti.[2] Romans sought laughter by attending comic plays (such as those of Plautus) and mimes (such as those of Publilius Syrus). Jokes from these sources usually depended on sexual themes.[3] Cicero believe that humour ought to be based upon "ambiguity, the unexpected, wordplay, understatement, irony, ridicule, silliness, and pratfalls".[3] Roman jokes also depended on certain stock characters and stereotypes, especially regarding foreigners,[4] as can be seen within Plautus' Poenulus.

Roman culture, which was heavily influenced by the Greeks, had also been in conversation with Greek humour.[1]

Examples

One of the oldest Roman jokes, which is based on a fictitious story and survived alive to this time, is told by Macrobius in his Saturnalia:[5] (4th century AD, but the joke itself is probably several centuries older):

Some provincial man has come to Rome, and walking on the streets was drawing everyone's attention, being a real double of the emperor Augustus. The emperor, having brought him to the palace, looks at him and then asks:

-Tell me, young man, did your mother come to Rome anytime?

The reply was:

-She never did. But my father frequently was here.

(The modern version is that an aristocrat, having met his exact double, asks: "Was your mother a housemaid in our palace?" "No, my father was a gardener there").

An example of a joke based on double meaning is recorded in Gellius (2nd century AD):[6]

A man, standing before a censor, is about to testify, whether he has a wife. The censor asks:

-Do you have, in all your honesty, a wife?

-I surely do, but not in all my honesty.

(the pun is in the expression used for in all your honesty - orig. ex animi tui sententia, typically used in oaths - which can also be understood as to your liking).

Some of the jokes are about fortune-tellers and the like. An example (1st century BC):[7]

A runner going to participate in the Olympic games had a dream, that he was driving a quadriga. Early in the morning he goes to a dream interpreter for an explanation. The reply is:

-You will win, that meant the speed and the strength of the horses.

But, to be sure about this, the runner visits another dream interpreter. This one replies:

-You will lose. Don't you understand, that four ones came before you?

Further reading

See also

Notes and References

  1. Milnor . Kristina . 1 October 2015 . Review of: Laughter in Ancient Rome: On Joking, Tickling, and Cracking Up. Sather classical lectures, 71 . live . . en . https://web.archive.org/web/20200909121137/https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2015/2015.10.22 . September 9, 2020 . Bryn Mawr Classical Review.
  2. Web site: Killgrove . Kristina . October 4, 2016 . Scatological Graffiti Was The Ancient Roman Version Of Yelp And Twitter . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20221205222952/http://www.forbes.com/sites/kristinakillgrove/2016/10/04/scatological-graffiti-was-the-ancient-roman-version-of-yelp-and-twitter/ . December 5, 2022 . Forbes.
  3. Web site: Mount . Harry . June 7, 2014 . What made Romans LOL? - The Spectator . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20220708083717/https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/what-made-romans-lol- . July 8, 2022 . The Spectator.
  4. Web site: Flood . Alison . 13 March 2009 . Classic gags discovered in ancient Roman joke book . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20211003221911/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/mar/13/roman-joke-book-beard . October 3, 2021 . . www.theguardian.com.
  5. Macr. Sat. 2.3
  6. Gell. IV 20
  7. Cic. div. II 145