The Laughter-Lover

Why weren�t you lying down heads-up?
The best and most famous doctors in the city ordered me to sleep like this.

How do you know he�s not coming in by the other gate?
When he arrives back, will you tell him that I stopped by?

Time, my good man, to mix me some dark wine.
I�m not thirsty.
Do me the favor while I�m still alive.
How long were their necks, that they could drink from something so deep!
Have my dinner-clothes sent here.
Since you�re under an oath, here�s the fifty thousand. But throw in for free a small casket, in case I need it for my son.

Now you�re mad that you found me screwing your mother for the first time ever!
So is she your daughter?
(You have no clue who your real father is.)
First murder your own children and then tell me to kill mine:
Father, you eat the children; I�ll take mother.
(It�s polite to call her Ma�am.)
She was a fighter.
What made you do it?

The time will come when I�ll build a threshing-floor so big that I won�t be able to see you and you won�t be able to see me.
I got something I wasn�t bargaining for:
Me, now that I�m alone �
Thanks to buddies like you!
(Look after them well.)
There are a few fire-logs still left. If you want to stop suffering, get yourself cremated on them.
Because you love me.

But what if the boy dies during the night and I lose my fee?
(If he had lived, he would have been all of those things!
If he were guilty of all that, he should have been cremated while still alive.)
What�s your rate for the night?
You can choose. But we don�t have a crumb.
Do you want me to get healthy and be forced to pay the doctor?
Alas, what shall I do? I am torn betwixt two evils!



Punchlines from the earliest known joke book, the Philogelos, attributed to Hierocles and Philagrios. Translated by John T. Quinn. Submitted by Daniel Galef.