The Sun. [volume] (Price, Utah) 1915-1932, 1920-11-05
TWO GREAT JOKES
Veteran Quips That Undoubtedly
Are Centuries Old.
TESTS Having TO DO With the Mother.
ln-Lsw and the Intoxicated Man
Always Have Power to
Cause a Laugh.

Cause a Laugh.
Some one once said that there are
only two Jokes in the world, the
drunken man Joke and the mother-in.
law Joke. There are many variations
Of the two themes, many ways Of pre-
sentlng the two supremely comic hg.
ures, but when we want to make each
other laugh we always go back either
70 the drunken man or to the moth.
er-in-law.
The statement IS IN exnggerntion.
There are other jokes. The curate's
egg Joke, for instance. which has
nothing TO do either with drunkurds
or mothersin-law. and the more recent
better ole" Joke. But II remains to
be seen whether either Of these Jokes
will survive. will amuse generation
after generation MS the two great
Jokes do. For the drunken man and
the mother-in.law are very old Jokes.
They have proved their worth by pro-
voking laughter for thousands Of
years and they are still the most pop
ular jokes there are. A comedian I'm.
personatlng n drunkard Is sure Of his
laugh, and n public speaker, finding
his audience Is getting bored, has only
90 say the words "mother-in.lnw'' TO
provoke full.throatcd merrlment.
or Tie two the drunken man Joke
seems 10 be the older. The Spartans
knew II. and used 20 make slaves
drunk 80 that their sons. laughing
heartily. might avoid the vice through
fenr Of ridlculc. The Jews knew II.
Their ancient literature ~ hngulnrly
poor In comedy. There nrc not half
n dozen Jokes In the whole old Tesla.
mcnt. hut the drunken man Joke II
there. Isaiah. a grim old puritan u
n statesman, made II. and made Il In
nm excellent form. The mother-in.
law Joke Is not 70 old, but Il goes bacl,
90 classical times
We find II In Plutnrch. "a man
once threw n stone nc dog and hit
his mother.in.law. Not such n bad
shot after ALL he said" That Is Plut.
arch's version OF TIE Joke. II n 80
neat and eplgrpmmatic that the Joke
itself must have been old IN his time.
lie could scarcely have achieved such
perfect form unless he had been
working on a long familiar Idea.
But ancient as these Jokes are they
have lost none Of their freshness for
us. Time, Il appears, cannot stale
their Infinite variety. We may fairly
suppose that they will last ms long Ms
our race does. America may 20 dry,
but the great comic tradition OF the
drunken man viii survive.
The bolshevists may abolish mar.
riage. but men will always remember
what marriage was because they viii
always laugh when anyone aays
"mother-in.inw." We may picture 20
ourselves the last survivors OF our
raco shivering IN Icy caves while tho
sun shoulders 20 extinction. They will
no doubt cheer the desperate hard
ship OF their winter by lnyenting fresh
quips about drunken men and moth.
ers-in-iaw.
No other Joke seems 20 possess this
qunlity OF endurance. Indeed. the
path Of mans progress through the
ages IL strewed with the corpses OF
dead jokes which once were vital
enough, but somehow missed immor.
tallty. There Is the doctor" Joke, for
instance. The anclents knew H..
"Physiclnn. heal myself" II n proven.
blal form of II. The story Of the med.
zeal man who went out hunting n an.
other version OF H. "rodny at least"
said n friend who met him, "you Will
XIII nothing" IL survived down 10 the
middle OF the last century, and sven
IN our own time q. Is. Shaw has AZ
tempted 10 gnlyanize Il into fresh hfa.
But the Joke Is really dead, We no
longer LAUGH spontaneously M the
thought 81 a doctor, though IN It's day
the doctor Joke was certainly good
One.-Edlnburgh Scotsman.