There are always lots of jokes on the internet. And yet there doesn't appear to be a joke museum, joke library, or a physical joke archives. I found one library collection so far - the Schmulowitz Collection of Wit & Humor (SCOWAH). It was founded in 1947 by library commissioner, lawyer, author, civic leader, and book collector Nat Schmulowitz (1889-1966).
The collection comprises a wide range of wit and humor spanning more than 450 years and in thirty-nine languages: joke books, international fairy tales and folklore, proverbs, national and ethnic humor, anecdotes, cartoons and comic books, political satire, biography, humorous essays, monologues, plays and novels, popular entertainments, movable books, and literary, historical and popular culture studies. It is in the San Francisco Public Library.
It got me thinking about how to classify the subject contents - I see categories like "the difference between" jokes. I like these:
What’s the difference between the bird flu and the swine flu? One requires tweetment and the other an oinkment. What’s the difference between a hippo and a Zippo? One is really heavy and the other is a little lighter. What’s the difference between a cat and a comma? One has claws at the end of its paws, and the other is a pause at the end of a clause.
There are so many types. There are puns, practical jokes, funny observations, question and answer jokes, and so many more.
Wikipedia says that happenstance rather than design is what has preserved jokes. The reason? They do not "belong to refined culture." I guess that's why the Library of Congress doesn't seem to have a joke collection, or to put it more refined, a collection on the subject of jokes. The Library of Congress does have Bob Hope's massive Joke file, - very famous. That's what I found so far.
My conclusion is that we just can't seem to take jokes seriously.
Here's the one I found amusing today: Why do seagulls fly over the sea? Because if they flew over a bay, they would be bagels. |