The Fascinating Story of the 3500-Year-Old ‘Yo Mama’ Joke
Unearthing the world’s oldest ‘Yo Mama’ joke from 35 centuries ago.
The ancient tablet that holds the world’s oldest ‘Yo Mama’ joke to have been discovered was unearthed in 1976 by archaeologist, J.J. van Dijk.
Since its excavation, the tablet has been lost, but a copy of the writing on it remains as proof that the humor of individuals from all those centuries ago was just as crude as ours today.
Reading into the Contents of the Tablet
According to J.J. van Dijk, the tablet was most likely written by a Babylonian student from 1,500 B.C. After it was excavated, Michael Streck and Nathan Wasserman studied it closely to present a translation of the writing and their research on it in the journal, Iraq.
The tablet itself consists of a few riddles that have been scribbled onto it; Streck and Wasserman refer to it as an example of “wisdom literature,” because they believe that the writing is supposed to express “short and sweet truths about life.”
The language it is written in is Akkadian, one that was spoken by the people of Babylon.
Even though most of the writing does not translate perfectly into English, scholars have been able…
