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    A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum: The World's Oldest Joke Book
    A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum: The World's Oldest Joke Book
    A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum: The World's Oldest Joke Book
    Ebook128 pages41 minutes

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

    By Dan Crompton

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    About this ebook

    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.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMichael O'Mara
    Release dateDec 9, 2013
    ISBN9781782432425
    A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum: The World's Oldest Joke Book
    Author

    Dan Crompton

    Dan Crompton studied Classics and Linguistics at Cambridge University. He is the author of Caught Short (2013) and A Classical Primer (2012) and the translator (from the original Ancient Greek) of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum: The World's Oldest Joke Book (2010).

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    Reviews for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

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    • 4/5
      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.
    • 3/5
      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.

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    A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum - Dan Crompton

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