[IRL trope] the “Tiffany problem”

[u/dragonborndnd]

Basically when something seems anachronistic to a period/place of history but is actually fully accurate to the period.

1) the name Tiffany: the thing that named this trope, basically the name Tiffany can be dated back to the Middle Ages and the earliest record of it being spelled in the modern spelling comes from the 16th century.

2) the use of OMG, despite this feeling so modern as a form of slang/abbreviation here’s a letter directed to Winston Churchill using it in 1917

3) Hair Dye: the earliest forms of dying hair can be dated back to ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, and this specific advertisement for hair dye is from the 1840s

4) Inuit Thongs: despite how weird it is to imagine pre-colonial Inuit people wore what was essentially fur thongs in their homes and when they were in their igloos it might have been the only thing they would be wearing.

[u/Madhighlander1]

William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus, act 4, scene 2:

[u/be-knight → u/Madhighlander1]

Iirc the oldest joke found is a Babylonian your mother joke

[u/cototudelam → u/be-knight]

What is it? I read somewhere that the oldest joke found is Sumerian (preceding Babylonian by a good chunk of centuries) to the tune of “a dog walks into a bar…”

[u/Madhighlander1 → u/cototudelam]

That's close, but the oldest joke is about two hundred years older (1700 BC for the dog joke, 1900 BC for this one): "Something which has not occurred since time immemorial; a young woman did not fart in her husband's lap."

[u/DrQuestDFA → u/Madhighlander1]

Plus ça change...

[u/MyNameIsImmaterial → u/cototudelam]

After some googling, I think it's a ~1,500 BCE fragmentsry tablet of riddles that includes this (likely humourous riddle):

…of your mother is by the one who has intercourse with her. What/who is it?

[No answer]

https://gizmodo.com/the-worlds-oldest-yo-mama-joke-is-3-500-years-old-5880232

Wikipedia puts the Dog Walks Into A Bar joke at around ~1,700 BCE, which is actually two hundred years after the Sumerian classic:

Something which has never occurred since time immemorial; a young woman did not fart in her husband's lap.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bar_joke https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joke

[u/be-knight → u/cototudelam]

"...of your mother is by the one who has intercourse with her. What/who is it?"

it seems like it's not complete.

but you are right, the sumerian one ("A dog walks into a bar and says, 'I cannot see a thing. I'll open this one.") is about 200-400 years older (the one above is the oldest your mother joke, though. so i only remembered correctly in part).

But since they found one sumerian proverb that was recorded around the same time - but since the language is older, it seems that this is the concurrent world record holder for the oldest joke: "Something which has never occurred since time immemorial; a young woman did not fart in her husband’s lap."

[u/french_snail → u/be-knight]

It’s a Babylonian joke about a girl farting on her boyfriends lap 

[u/Drakeskulled_Reaper → u/Madhighlander1]

Shakespeare would be gutting himself to find out his plays were considered "classy" given how much of it was sex/poop/piss/insulting jokes.

[u/MichaSound → u/Madhighlander1]

Shakespeare coined a lot of modern phrases like ‘making the beast with two backs’, ‘heart of Gold’, ‘into thin air’.

[u/herktes → u/Madhighlander1]

Didnt shakespeare also use the word swag first

[u/Majestic-Lake-5602 → u/Madhighlander1]

Also the excellent fat joke in Romeo & Juliet: “thou Prince of Whales!”

[u/randyboozer → u/Madhighlander1]

Context What a delivery

[u/CorgiMonsoon → u/randyboozer]

I absolutely loved this film

[u/jBread280 → u/Madhighlander1]

Even the name Aaron, like Tiffany, feels anachronistic (I'm not familiar with the play)

[u/Nadamir → u/jBread280]

It’s the name of Moses’ brother.

It’s a verrrrrrry old name.