Link: The 100 Jokes That Shaped Modern Comedy

The oldest joke on record, a Sumerian proverb, was first told all the way back in 1900 B.C. Yes, it was a fart joke: “Something which has never occurred since time immemorial; a young woman did not fart in her husband’s lap.” Don’t feel bad if you don’t get it — something was definitely lost in time and translation (you have to imagine it was the Mesopotamian equivalent of “Women be shopping”), but not before the joke helped pave the way for almost 4,000 years of toilet humor.

Auf vulture.com, einem Pop-Kultur-Ableger des New York Magazine, sind Journalisten, Comedians und Comedy-Historiker (das klingt nach einem Traumberuf) durch die Humorgeschichte gereist und haben die hundert einflussreichsten Witze mitgebracht: Von Bert Williams (1906) bis Amy Schumer (2015). Spannend sind die historischen Hintergründe und Zusammenhänge, besonders was die Rolle von unterrepräsentierten schwarzen oder weiblichen Comedians angeht. The 100 Jokes That Shaped Modern Comedy: From the Marx Brothers to ​The Simpsons, Richard Pryor to Amy Schumer: 100 bits, sketches, and one-liners that changed humor forever.