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Copy pasting the completed translation: "A friendly dog walks into a bar. His eyes do not see anything. He should open them."
by blamazon 5y ago
Copy pasting the completed translation:
"A friendly dog walks into a bar.
His eyes do not see anything.
He should open them."
- PixyMisa 5y ago4000 year old dad jokes. This is the content I come here for.
- singularity2001 5y agoWhy is it certain that this is a joke and not some kind of wisdom, charm or unknown literary category?
- spywaregorilla 5y agoFor starters, it looks, and quacks, like a joke
- hoseja 5y agoThat's because it had a very convoluted plastic surgery to make it so.
- blamazon 5y agoBecause it starts with "A dog walks into a bar"
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- mcv 5y ago> Why is it certain that this is a joke and not some kind of wisdom, charm or unknown literary category? The distinction between those may not always be that well-defined. I once read that the story of the Good Samaritan (by Jesus) follows the structure of a popular set of jokes (or possibly self-congratulatory "wisdom") of the time: something happens, a priest comes by and is useless, a Levite passes by and is useless, and finally a common Jew comes by and fixes the problem, and everybody gets to feel good about being a commoner and not some useless elitist. Except Jesus tripped up his audience by replacing the Jew with a Samaritan.
- thaumasiotes 5y agoThere is a famous story about Zhuangzi [if you prefer, Chuang Tzu] that goes like this: ----- Zhuangzi and Huizi were crossing a bridge over the river Hao. Zhuangzi said: the fish have come out to play; this makes them happy. Huizi said: You are not a fish. How do you know what makes fish happy? Zhuangzi said: You are not me. How do you know that I don't know what makes fish happy? Huizi said: I am not you. Of course I do not know you. [But] you are certainly not a fish. Your non-knowledge of what makes fish happy is total. Zhuangzi said: Please stick to your original [question]. You asked how I know what makes fish happy. You already knew that I knew this and [still] you asked me. I know it over the Hao. ----- "I know it over the Hao" makes sense because in the original language, the word "how", 安, is also the word "where". The story comes down to us as part of a foundational text. Is it wisdom or a cheap joke?
- kovvy 5y agoA lot of humour consists of buildup followed by a twist - the humour is in the contrast between the expected and the actual. This is very similar to explaining a concept that is flawed or misunderstood by building up a scenario where the expected outcome can be contrasted with an actual outcome. A smaller set replaces 'actual' with 'nonsense'. The text may present this as wisdom, but I would say it is both wisdom and humour.
- dotancohen 5y agoHow rough is this translation? Does the "...walks into a bar" joke predate monotheism? Though we know that the Egyptian neighbours were drinking beer at the time, did either culture actually have drinking establishments?
- Kalium 5y agoAs I understand it, Sumerian culture had drinking establishments. Though they don't seem to have been freestanding business establishments, and were often part of some larger organization (like a temple). So "bar" would be an updated translation that preserves the essence of an idea of walking into a drinking place, but obviously a lot of the cultural nuance around the social role of a Sumerian tavern is lost. It doesn't really seem important for this joke though.
- blamazon 5y agoHere's a Sumerian 'drinking song' about a drinking place, the female proprietor, and the process she performs to make beer. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/a-sip-from-an-ancient-sumerian-drinking-song-125002995/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/a-sip-from-an-an...
- Mikeb85 5y agoIt's well known that the Sumerians did indeed have drinking establishments. Lots of writings about them.
- oblio 5y agoWe had alcohol long before we invented second generation religions :-)
- marcodiego 5y agoDoes the original text really says: "walks into a bar"?
- blamazon 5y agoNo, the original text says: ur-gir15-re eš2-dam-še in-kur9-ma Alternatively notated as: /urgir-e ešdam-še i.n-kur-ma/
- marcodiego 5y agoOh, sure. More accurately translated as "tavern".
- reaperducer 5y agoDepends on your definition of "tavern." Having lived in both places, a "tavern" in New York and a "tavern" in Wisconsin can be different things, depending on a lot of factors.
- PeterisP 5y agoDifferent cultures may assign different connotations to what "bar" means, but first line of the original text says "walks into a [place]" and other sources using that same word [place] involve serving beer to patrons and/or prostitution there, so "bar" or "brothel" or "inn" may be roughly decent approximations; but "bar" has the "... walks into a bar" English trope going for it.