The Whatever Files

THEE COMPLEATE HISTORIE OF HUMOUR: Part 2

The observant amongst you will have noted that the Saxony Village of Vartsjuk was responsible for the development of the punchline. By the Middle Ages Vartsjuk had developed into a sizeable town fortified by Teutonic Knights. It was in 1234, a mere 500 years after the first punchline, that this remarkable place was once more at the forefront of humour development.

Teutonic rumblings were often heard, and it is perhaps inevitable that eventually someone should draw attention to them. That someone was Ludvig Von Vurstlaf, who as many of you will know is credited with the first fart joke. He is also responsible for the ancillary 'Ziehe meinen finger'.

In fact the Middle Ages were a fertile time for humour development. At the end of a particularly hilarious performance by Trumpity Trump, the court jester to the court of King Roland the Peculiar his assistant Berry suddenly declaimed

"Knock, Knock."

Puzzled, the audience enquired as to whom was desiring entrance. Berry then replied 'Canny'.

"Canny Who?" asked the King.

"Can he make this any funnier?" Berry asked.

As reward for producing a new form of joke, Berry was Knighted. He was just telling everyone how he'd be able to enjoy fart jokes first hand when he was murdered by the insanely jealous Trumpity. This was the first recorded murder that involved custard in any serious manner.

Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales contained much that was humorous, but buried in amongst all that was the following exchange:

Piers Plowman: My dogge hath no nose.

Nun: Oh the poor thinge. Pray tell, how doth it smell.

Piers Plowman: It do proper hum sumtimes, it doth depend what he's been rolling in Mistress.