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Comment by thinkpad20 | Hacker News Reader

Wow, these jokes are as dry as day old toast. Would people have really laughed at these back then? I read 5 or 6 of them and many of them don't even make sense, let alone are funny.

Still, I'm glad to have them preserved, it's a window into the past :)

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Maybe the Victorians just weren't good at humour? I was thinking maybe we don't get them because they are old but Mark Twain lived pretty much over the Victorian period (Twain 1845-1910, Victoria's reign 1837-1901) and he's pretty funny.

He didn't seem to think so much of England at the time - “I would like to live in Manchester, England. The transition between Manchester and death would be unnoticeable.”

Flip through a modern joke book at a book store some time. They're pretty awful. I think it's just that one-liners told in isolation aren't funny on their own.

Just as a point for consideration, look at the television variety shows broadcast back in the 50's. Simple slapstick humour, such as tripping over or crashing through a drywall brought huge amounts of laughter from the audience. If that happened today, the only laughter you'd hear would be from the laugh track.

My only immediate reference is Ambrose Bierce's "Devil's Dictionary", which apparently just falls within Victorian Time:

http://www.ambrosebierce.org/dictionary.htm

(Available on Debian-derived systems via "apt-get install dict-devil")

Agreed. I contrast this with the jokes in the Big Book of Jewish Humor. It has jokes going back to the schtetl days of the 1880s, that are still pretty hilarious.

I read the first few and dry is being polite. Wasn't this the age when people were turned on by seeing a woman's exposed ankle? I wonder what their reaction would have been to today's jokes and short shorts. Seems people were both easily amused and aroused back then. It is wonderful to have this archive though, agreed.

> I wonder what their reaction would have been to today's jokes

They'd get on reddit, see a couple of mundane image macros memes of the lines of "WENT TO THE BATHROOM — DIDN'T PEE", and conclude that humanity has gone downhill horribly humor-wise.

I apologize, Your Majesty, but the whole tenor of this conversation is completely out of keeping with contemporary morals! [1]

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4p0uw42cdo

Have you read My Secret Life? This was the age when caning boys was the thing to do, when Venus In Furs was written, when homosexuality was first introduced to public life since the end of Rome. Their pornography was about desire frustrated, because that is sexy.

http://the-toast.net/2014/04/10/pearl-victorian-porn-finest/

> Wow, these jokes are as dry as day old toast. Would people have really laughed at these back then? I read 5 or 6 of them and many of them don't even make sense, let alone are funny.

We are not amused.

Apparently she never said this!

That was pretty much the opposite of "that's what she said!".

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