Comments on: Funny Bones, 1907

By: Ray

Ray — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 03:23:57 +0000

#2 – Ditto.

These might be my favorite so far.

By: Tatiana

Tatiana — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 02:26:00 +0000

The execution joke reminds me of something I heard Mohandas Gandhi once said when asked what he thought of Western Civilization, “I think it would be a good idea.”

By: Tatiana

Tatiana — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 02:24:05 +0000

These are hilarious. The joke about the business woman… isn’t it also supposed to be funny because as a female she doesn’t really know how to endorse a check? I’m amazed at how pervasive the sexist humor was in the past. That really does show that we’re making progress, even if it seems agonizingly slow sometimes. =)

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 21:56:57 +0000

These jokes were published when my great-grandparents would have been in their 30s or 40s, with houses full of young children. I try to reconcile the somber formal portraits I have of those couples with the guffaws that must have resulted -- they couldn't have been that much different from me, so they must have guffawed -- but it's hard. I'm working on it.

By: Coffinberry

Coffinberry — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 19:09:39 +0000

The Christmas Idyll was hilarious.

By: Mark Brown

Mark Brown — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 17:26:06 +0000

That limerick about the young woman from Calcutta is probably the best and cleverest limerick I have ever heard.

I’ve spent a lot of time among German speaking people, I can hear in my mind’s ear how ‘H’ would sound exactly like age.

And the one about a woman whipping her children demonstrates how times have changed. It is shocking for us to even hear about a mother whipping her kids, more shocking than casual profanity. For our great grandparents, it didn’t raise an eyebrow.