Friday 18 February 2011

A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM Book Review



66460
Title: A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM
Author: TRANSLATED BY DAN CROMPTON
What we have here is the world's oldest joke book, translated for laughs rather than academic perfection. Mercifully lacking in Latin footnotes, the best jokes in this collection will have you in stitches and the worst are so bad, they are funny. Our sense of humour has really changed very little over the last two millennia and our book is packed full of cheeky puns, cheesy one-liners, sexual innuendoes and an awful lot of fart gags. The jokes in this book, attributed to two 4th century wits named Hierocles and Philagrious were originally collected together under the title Philogelos (The Joker) back when the Romans were in charge of the known world. But rather than giving insight into the philosophical and existential musings of our ancient predecessors, they simply prove that back in the 4th century they found nothing funnier than a eunuch with a hernia. Hairdresser: How shall I cut your hair, sir? Client: In silence. With charming line illus. 160pp.
Published Price: £9.99
BIBLIOPHILE PRICE: £5

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