A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum: The World's Oldest Joke Book

by Dan Crompton

They say the old ones are the best, and this long-negelcted collection of jokes revived from the archives of Ancient Greece confirms that in some cases this is true, and in others it really isn't. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum is the first commercial translation of Philogelos - a 1600-year-old collection of Greek jokes. From absurd situations to general stupididity, farting to foolishness, this book contains a wealth of jokes, some of which still hit the mark and some that will have you groaning with laughter, even if it is because they're so bad, they're good!

Includes such 'old chestnuts' as: At a woman's funeral, a stranger solemnly asks, 'Who is resting here?' 'I am!' cries the widower, 'Now that she's gone!'

From the sublime to the ridiculous, and despite some humour appearing to have been 'lost in translation', this bizarre collection of quips from our comedy forefathers is guaranteed to raise a smile.

Genres: Humor, History, Nonfiction, Ancient History

161 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 14, 2010

Reviews

[Lukerik · Rating 3 out of 5]

An entertaining read for a Sunday afternoon. Especially if the person you’re with is trying to read their own book and you keep interrupting to tell them another joke. Some of the jokes are actually quite amusing and it’s interesting to see that we still joke about some of the same things today.

This translation (Dan Crompton’s) is almost an adaptation of The Philogelos. He’s stripped out duplicate jokes and anything that only works in Greek and translated in such a way that no notes are required. Very much an edition for the general reader.

[Reza Amiri Praramadhan · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this book, the author displayed a selection of jokes from the times of ancient Greeks. While I am familiar with most of the jokes, which show how unchanged our jokes are, I am most amazed by the large, even numerous amount of jokes about idiot people, which takes almost half of book pages. Even the chapters about some foreign people were just about idiot people. Overall, it is an ok book, although I expected better variety of topics.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I chose this book more because of its name than anything else. I have always been a big fan of the play and thought this would be a good read. I was not disappointed as it was the humor I expected from the time period it comes from. The humor within does not fit with today's society but if taken in context was extremely funny.

[Bruce · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of jokes that are truly ancient. Compton’s non-scholarly translation into contemporary British English may not be filled with LOL humor, and but as the publisher promises, it does prove that farting has been funny for a very long time.

[Citybones · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entretenido, no tanto por la gracia que me hicieron los chistes que no fue mucha, sino por el vistazo a la sociedad griega de la época.
Interesante y rápido.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very funny ancient Greek jokes told in translation. I don't think it is worth buying, but they are pretty funny jokes. The "smartass" ones were the best and they translate the best into today's society. Unfortunately I cannot say the same for all of them. but I still got a goodly number of laughs out of reading the book.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

While the humour of some of these jokes has been lost in translation, most are incredibly funny. Interesting to see the similar sense of humour of the Greeks and Romans 1500 years ago :)

[Hikaoru · Rating 4 out of 5]

Borrowed this from roomie. Glad to know that our humour don't change even after a few millennium.