This idea was present in Philip Jose Farmer's Riverworld series, where all human who ever lived are brought back together. There's a scene that struck me where

This idea was present in Philip Jose Farmer's Riverworld series, where all human who ever lived are brought back together. There's a scene that struck me where characters from different eras such as the paleolithic, middle-ages and the 19th century share some jokes and discover they all know the same ones. The idea that such jokes are a universal constant of the human experience through millenia is somewhat recomforting I think.