We have Mesopotamian clay tablets from 2000 BCE inscribed with riddles that are groan-worthy in a way that transcends millennia. Riddles require the speaker to mislead the listener on purpose, briefly, for amusement. It’s hard not to imagine a father deploying one on a child and enjoying the momentary confusion. The tablet doesn’t say “Dad said this,” but the social context fits too neatly to ignore.
Civilizations rise and fall. Empires crumble. But somewhere, 5,000 years ago, a child asked a question, and a dad answered with nonsense because it was funny. The torch has been faithfully carried ever since.
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Dad Facts Fun Fact:
We have Mesopotamian clay tablets from 2000 BCE inscribed with riddles that are groan-worthy in a way that transcends millennia. Riddles require the speaker to mislead the listener on purpose, briefly, for amusement. It’s hard not to imagine a father deploying one on a child and enjoying the momentary confusion. The tablet doesn’t say “Dad said this,” but the social context fits too neatly to ignore.
Civilizations rise and fall. Empires crumble. But somewhere, 5,000 years ago, a child asked a question, and a dad answered with nonsense because it was funny. The torch has been faithfully carried ever since.
It would not surprise me if orcas and chimpanzees had their own form of dad jokes.