Can jokes that provoked a guffaw or a chortle in a Victorian parlour still do so 150 years later?
If you plan to break out a 15-decade-old joke at your next dinner party, your success is likely to be mixed — at least, that seems to be the case based on the humour column we dug out of a March 1, 1873 edition of the New Westminster Mainland Guardian.
Now, full credit where it's due: a couple of these fall firmly into solid dad joke territory, even for 2023:
How about:
Why is the letter K like a pig's tail?
Because it's the end of pork.
Or perhaps even:
At what time was Adam born?
A little before Eve.
You could even try:
Why is a lucky gambler such an agreeable fellow?
Because of his winning ways.
You might well earn yourself the appropriate groan if you try out one of those on a modern audience. Some of the others, though? Well, let's just say they may not quite translate into this century.
In what respect were the governments of Algiers and Malta as different as light from darkness?
One was governed by Deys and the other by Knights.
Or ...
Why is a whirpool like a donkey?
Because it's an eddy (a Noddy).
Just a guess, but we'll predict that those particular offerings may not have survived the past 15 decades.
Even so, the laughter is kind of a nice touch when the news feels heavy. Props to the editors of New Westminster Mainland Guardian for choosing to include a little light content alongside the politics and peril of the regular headlines.
(Memo to self: Trot out that book of dad jokes for the New Westminster Record to make sure 2023 humour is preserved for future readers.)
New Westminster is a city full of history — and that history includes a variety of community newspapers over its many decades.
In this new weekly series, we're taking a look back at the headlines from some of those newspapers, shining a spotlight each week on a notable news story, person or moment from this week in New West history.
Watch for it online every Thursday.
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Follow Julie MacLellan on Twitter @juliemaclellan.
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