A Scene, in Five Parts

Part One: I see the headline "World's oldest joke traced back to 1900 BC."

Part Two: I think, I'll bet it's about women.

Part Three: I read—

It is a saying of the Sumerians, who lived in what is now southern Iraq and goes: "Something which has never occurred since time immemorial; a young woman did not fart in her husband's lap."

…A 1600 BC gag about a pharaoh, said to be King Snofru, comes second -- "How do you entertain a bored pharaoh? You sail a boatload of young women dressed only in fishing nets down the Nile and urge the pharaoh to go catch a fish."

The oldest British joke dates back to the 10th Century and reveals the bawdy face of the Anglo-Saxons -- "What hangs at a man's thigh and wants to poke the hole that it's often poked before? Answer: A key."

Part Four: I sigh.

Part Five: I write this post, publish it, and bookmark it—so I can refer to it the next time some misogybag tells me that his sexist joke is "edgy."

Fin.