Knock-Knock! A Look Inside the Surprising History of Classic Jokes
2025-06-13
More Than Child's Play: Uncovering the Deep History of Your Favorite Jokes
Ever wonder why a simple pun still gets a chuckle? Or where the knock-knock joke even came from? The jokes we tell today are part of a rich and fascinating tradition with deep historical roots. From ancient Sumerian proverbs to the first printed joke books of the Renaissance, the evolution of humor tells a compelling story about how we play with language, share culture, and connect with one another.
Let's take a journey back in time to explore the echoes of laughter past and uncover the origins of the jokes and riddles that have entertained humanity for millennia.
The First Joke: The Forbidden Fart
The oldest known joke ever recorded dates back to 1900 BC Sumeria. It's a proverb that says: "Something which has never occurred since time immemorial; a young woman did not fart in her husband's lap" (Joseph, 2008). Yes, the first known joke is a fart joke. Early examples like this one show that from the very beginning, jokes have been a way to poke fun at domestic life and social norms. And even before what we know as "jokes" existed, riddles and witty sayings were the primary forms of verbal humor - tests of wisdom and cleverness found in myths and folktales across the globe.
From Scrolls to Jestbooks: The First Joke Collections
For centuries, jokes were passed down orally. The earliest known collection of jokes is the Greek book Philogelos, or "The Laughter-Lover, compiled around the 4th or 5th century AD (Beard, 2014). Many of its 265 jokes are surprisingly familiar, and many of their foundations are still alluded to today in modern comedy. With the invention of the printing press in the 15th century, joke collections, or "jestbooks," exploded in popularity. One of the first and most influential was the Facetiae by Italian author Poggio Bracciolini, first published in 1470. These books, filled with witty and often bawdy tales, were printed alongside Bibles, meeting the demand for a newly literate society (Ward & Waller, 2000).
Puns and Wordplay: A Timeless Mark of Wit
The pun, sometimes cheekily called "the lowest form of wit," has a surprisingly distinguished history. Puns and other forms of clever wordplay were a celebrated art form in Elizabethan England. William Shakespeare was a true master of the pun, packing his plays with ingenious double meanings that entertained everyone, from the common folk to the royal court (Delabastita, 1997).
This love for wordplay is a constant in popular culture. Appreciating a good pun requires a sharp understanding of semantics and nuance, making it a perennially "smart" joke (Shultz & Horibe, 1974).
The Knock-Knock Joke: A Modern Classic
So, where did one of the most iconic joke formats come from? The knock-knock joke is a relatively recent invention, with most evidence pointing to its emergence in the 1930s United States.
Its rise was likely fueled by the popular culture of the era. A 1936 song, "Knock, Knock, Who's There?" by Fletcher Henderson, featured the catchy, repetitive structure that defines the joke (Lavin, 2024). The format was perfectly suited for radio, and hosts and comedians quickly adopted it. The standard five-line structure is a simple, participatory script:
- Knock, knock.
- Who's there?
- [Name].
- [Name] who?
- [Punchline/Pun].
Its predictability makes it easy to remember and replicate, turning it into a shared cultural touchstone that almost everyone recognizes and can participate in (Oring, 2011).
While the modern knock-knock joke format is a 20th-century invention, the initial phrasing "Knock, knock! Who's there?" has a much more distinguished literary origin: William Shakespeare's play, Macbeth. However, its appearance in the play is far from a joke. The line is spoken by a drunken Porter in a dark, comic relief scene that takes place immediately after Macbeth has murdered King Duncan.
The insistent knocking at the castle gate prompts the Porter to imagine he is the gatekeeper of Hell. As he shuffles to open the gate, he mutters, "Knock, knock, knock! Who’s there, i’ th’ name of Belzebub?" The phrase, therefore, is born from a moment of high dramatic tension and grim irony, as the castle has indeed become a hellish place. While the scene provides a moment of humor, there is no direct lineage from this somber context to the silly, playful jokes that would emerge centuries later.
Why These Old Jokes Still Work
The enduring appeal of these classic joke formats lies in how they tap into fundamental aspects of human cognition and social interaction.
- Riddles challenge our ability to think abstractly and decode metaphors.
- Puns play on our linguistic skills and our ability to process multiple meanings simultaneously.
- Knock-knock jokes provide a simple and predictable social script, allowing for easy, turn-based interaction that culminates in a shared laugh.
These humorous forms are more than just silly words. They are cultural artifacts, passed down through generations. They connect us to the past and play a crucial role in how we understand language, culture, and each other. The next time you hear a joke, you're not just hearing silly words - you're hearing a piece of history.
References
Beard, M. (2014). Laughter in Ancient Rome: On Joking, Tickling, and Cracking Up. University of California Press.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctt6wqbdt
Delabastita, D. (1997). Traduccion, creacion y tradicion de los juegos de palabras. In D. Delabastita (Ed.), Essays on Punning and Translation. St. Jerome Publishing.
https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315538594
Joseph, J. (2008, July 31). World's oldest joke traced back to 1900 BC. Reuters.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-joke-odd-idUSKUA14785120080731
Lavin, T. (2024, April 1). Knock, Knock. Who's There? Metafolklore, Jokes, and Shakespeare. Library of Congress Folklife Today Blog.
https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2024/04/knock-knock-whos-there-metafolklore-jokes-and-shakespeare/
Oring, E. (2011). Knocking on the Schoolhouse Door: The Incongruity of a Joke and Its Structure. Humor - International Journal of Humor Research, 24(2), 173-192.
https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/humr.2011.009/html
Shultz, T. R., & Horibe, F. (1974). Development of the appreciation of verbal jokes. Developmental Psychology, 10(1), 13-20.
https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1974-10838-001
Ward, A.W., & Waller, A.R. (Eds.). (2000). The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21). Volume III. Renascence and Reformation. Bartleby.com. (Original work published 1907-1921)