Kliban by B. Kliban for August 03, 2020

Isn’t he talking to both the brethren and the sistern?

Can’t say squaw.

Taketh my wife, if thee pleaseth.

Young Mistress Agatha wast so fat, she sitteth around the table!

Say what you will, it’s better than their version of karaoke night.

thou shalt spend eternity in yon pillory for some of these lines…

“I’ll be here all week. Please don’t forget to tip your brew wench!”

Jokes in the time of hysteria and witch hangings

“And verily I say unto thee, thou hast paid me no respect!”

“Take my strife. Please.”

Puritanism. The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.

H. L. Mencken

Tough crowd

In the days before humor was funny…

No Deer. Ass to high, run too fast.

Back then, it was okay to punch down.

And when there were witches in the audience, he really killed.

“Louder. More Presbyterian!”

Early ‘bombing in New Haven’.

It sounds like heavy sighing, but really they are laughing.

He should have a violin.

madison, wisconsin still has squaw bay in lake monona.

The audience likes the joke about as much as a modern ones do.

Variation on the old (really old) Henny Youngman joke (his signature line actually):

“Who was that woman I saw you with last night?” “That was no woman, that was my wife!”

Problematical these days but back then it was what it was.