Ian Hislop's Oldest Jokes

Ian begins his quest in the dark ages, not known as a well-spring of comic opportunity. Nevertheless, in the pages of the Venerable Bede's 'Ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum - Ecclesiastical History of England, there is wordplay. Not only that it's wordplay that obeys the comedy rule of three and it was potent enough to have a part in the naming of a nation. And how his fellow monks must have laughed.

Producer: Tom Alban

With the help of contemporary comedians, scholars and an appetite for enduring humour, Ian Hislop tracks down the earliest examples of enduring British comedy tropes and jokes.

He visits libraries, museums and chapels, and also talks to comedy stars and writers of today like Nina Conti, Paul Whitehouse, comedy song writing duo Flo and Joan and parodist Craig Brown.

Ian Hislop begins his ten-part comedy quest in search of ancient British Wordplay.

Ian Hislop begins a comedy quest in search of ancient British wordplay.

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And in today's programme he travels to Exeter to admire the Bishop's seat and discover the filth hidden behind the Double entendre of the Exeter book of Riddles.

Producer: Tom Alban

With the help of contemporary comedians, scholars and an appetite for enduring humour, Ian Hislop tracks down the earliest examples of enduring British comedy tropes and jokes.

He visits libraries, museums and chapels, and also talks to comedy stars and writers of today like Nina Conti, Paul Whitehouse, comedy song writing duo Flo and Joan and parodist Craig Brown.

Part two of Ian Hislop's British comedy quest leads him to Anglo-Saxon Double Entendre.

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The subject of drink and drunkenness is always a contentious one, but however puritanical or sensitive the age, the figure of a drunk, from Joanna Lumley's riotous Patsy in Absolutely Fabulous to Shakespeare's Sir John Falstaff has been a regular feature of comedy. And as it turns out, you can go back further still to find the depiction of a comic drunk. Ian's in Scotland to see The Bullion Stone, a 10th century Pictish carving now on display in the National Museum of Scotland.

Producer: Tom Alban

With the help of contemporary comedians, scholars and an appetite for enduring humour, Ian Hislop tracks down the earliest examples of enduring British comedy tropes and jokes.

He visits libraries, museums and chapels, and also talks to comedy stars and writers of today like Nina Conti, Paul Whitehouse, comedy song writing duo Flo and Joan and parodist Craig Brown.

Part three of Ian Hislop's comedy quest leads him back to the Picts laughing at drunks.

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In today's programme Ian looks for the earliest examples of visual humour. It's not something you can find in the texts of ancient manuscripts, but in the company of art historian Dr Janina Ramirez he finds, under the seats of New College Oxford Chapel, wooden carvings that suggest those who made them were never happier than when making people laugh. There are straining green men, noble knights on pantomime horses and semi-clad students involved in what appears to be a boozy brawl.

Without the benefit of film, it's as near as we can get to examples of Late Medieval visual humour which verges on a depiction of slapstick.

Producer: Tom Alban

Ian visits a late medieval college chapel to examine early examples of visual comedy in his search for evidence of what made our ancestors laugh.

He visits libraries, museums and chapels, and also talks to comedy stars and writers of today like Nina Conti, Paul Whitehouse, comedy song writing duo Flo and Joan and parodist Craig Brown.

Part four of Ian Hislop's comedy quest leads him to physical humour in medieval carving.

Ian Hislop's ancient comedy quest leads him to physical humour in medieval carving.

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In this programme Ian is at the National Library of Scotland to see a manuscript that is unique in British comedy history. It actually describes the set of a 15th century entertainer who performed for audiences in Nottinghamshire at the time of the Wars of the Roses. The secrets of the Heege manuscript, which used to be part of a huge Medieval collection owned by Sir Walter Scott, were unearthed by Dr James Wade who shows Ian around the well-thumbed document. It was written out by a Richard Heege who, he claims, was able to report on what he saw because he was the only person sober enough to do so. He gives us examples of comedy routines including the hunt for a killer rabbit, a comedy sermon and a nonsense verse about a village fair. It's as near an eye-witness account as we have of a jester in action.

Producer: Tom Alban

In the fifth programme in his search for the earliest examples of British comedy Ian looks at a unique manuscript that actually describes a medieval entertainer in action.

He visits libraries, museums and chapels, and also talks to comedy stars and writers of today like Nina Conti, Paul Whitehouse, comedy song writing duo Flo and Joan and parodist Craig Brown.

Part five of Ian Hislop's British comedy quest leads to an ancient stand-up comedy review.

Ian Hislop's British comedy quest finds its focus in an ancient stand-up comedy review.

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Today Ian is the guest of Professor Jane Geddess at the library of Aberdeen University where he faces, head on, the ferocious image of - The Bonnacon. It's a mythical beast that appears in the beautifully decorated pages of the Aberdeen Bestiary, a book that was so richly adorned that Henry VIII 'acquired it' for his own library at the time of the dissolution of the monasteries. It subsequently made its way to Aberdeen as part of a gift and is now a treasured possession of the University. But as well as forming part of a 'Bestiary tradition' that stretches back to ancient Alexandria in Egypt, it also demonstrates that Medieval scribes were in the business of making people laugh at, or with animals, an anthropomorphic relationship which sustains to this day. In the case of the Bonnacon, the fact that its unique power is to be able to expel at extreme pressure, excrement that can burn through metal shields, is depicted in lurid detail.

Ian gets a 21st century take on our comic relationship with animals with the ventriloquist Nina Conti, who has, for more than twenty years, made a living out of 'monkey'. She, and he, give Ian the benefit of their wisdom on animals in comedy.

Producer: Tom Alban

Ian is in northern Scotland to see a beautifully illuminated Medieval manuscript that gives us a very early example of the appeal of animals in British comedy.

In the sixth programme Ian is in Aberdeen to see the University's famous Bestiary, a Medieval manuscript so richly illuminated that it attracted Henry VIII who borrowed it, permanently from its original home somewhere in the North of England. Now it resides in Aberdeen University's new library, complete with its illustrations and sermons about animals. It's all very straight, until you reach the Bonnacon, a mythical beast that appears to have no biblical message beyond its capacity to make the reader laugh. Ian also takes advice on our abiding comic relationship with animals from Nina Conti and Monkey, with whom she shares a sometimes fractious but always funny relationship.

The sixth programme in Ian's series searching for early evidence of British comedy.

In the sixth programme in his series looking for recorded evidence of British comedy staples, Ian is in Aberdeen to see medieval evidence of laughing at and with Animals.

This time Ian is in Aberdeen to see the University's famous Bestiary, a Medieval manuscript so richly illuminated that it attracted Henry VIII who borrowed it, permanently from its original home somewhere in the North of England. Now it resides in Aberdeen University's new library, complete with its illustrations and sermons about animals. It's all very straight, until you reach the Bonnacon, a mythical beast that appears to have no biblical message beyond its capacity to make the reader laugh. Ian also takes advice on our abiding comic relationship with animals from Nina Conti and Monkey, with whom she shares a sometimes fractious but always funny relationship.

The latest installment of Ian's series searching for early evidence of British comedy.

In the latest programme in his series looking for recorded evidence of British comedy staples, Ian is in Aberdeen to see medieval evidence of laughing at and with animals.

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He visits libraries, museums and chapels, and also talks to comedy stars and writers of today like Nina Conti, Paul Whitehouse, comedy song writing duo Flo and Joan and parodist Craig Brown.

And it's the art of parody that's the subject of today's programme as Ian visits Oxford's Bodleian library with Professor Marion Turner, to look at Geoffrey Chaucer's 14th century humble-brag parody, the Tale of Sir Topaz, from his Canterbury tales. It's the tale told by Chaucer himself, the poet pilgrim mocked by the host and apparently for good reason because the rhyme scheme and subject of Sir Topaz is award-winningly awful. The targets of the parody, the romance tales of the era are less familiar now, but Ian is still able to rejoice in the verse and the beautiful manuscript in which it has been captured. Craig Brown offers expert observation from today's perspective, explaining what is required of the parodist and why a good parody is much more than a simple imitation.

Producer; Tom Alban

Ian Hislop's quest for British comedy originals celebrates Chaucer's brilliance at parody.

Ian Hislop's search for evidence of early British Comedy staples reaches Chaucer and the art of parody in the form of the Tale of Sir Topaz from The Canterbury Tales.

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He visits libraries, museums and chapels, and also talks to comedy stars and writers of today like Nina Conti, Paul Whitehouse, comedy song writing duo Flo and Joan and parodist Craig Brown.

Today Ian addresses a gap in the historical record. Where is the evidence of a female contribution to comedy and humour? The journey to equality on the comedy circuit today isn't exactly a fait accompli but the Medieval records can give the impression that it was only monks or wood-carvers or clerks who provided all the laughs. However, that would be to make huge assumptions, according to Dr Janina Ramirez and Professor Marion Turner, not least about the gender of Anon. And there are glimpses of humour in The Book of Margery Kemp and the figure of Chaucer's Wife of Bath, even if one was written out by a man and the other was the creation of a man. There's also an argument for looking elsewhere, at the ephemera of Medieval records, the marginalia of manuscripts, the designs and drawings and the records of games.

Producer: Tom Alban

The 8th part of Ian Hislop's quest for early British comedy looks at the work of women.

Ian changes tack in his series tracing the origins of British humour to address the apparent absence of female contributions to comedy in the Medieval period.

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In this last but one programme Ian moves to the 17th century when printing and changes in censorship laws ushered in a new and energetic form of comedy, the satirical cartoon. Ian is more than familiar with the giants of the so-called Golden age of Cartoon satirists, starting with William Hogarth and maturing into the 18th and 19th century with James Gilray. But with Dr Meredith Hale as guide, Ian is in the British Museum to see the work of Romayne de Hoeghe, a Dutch cartoonist whose fantastically detailed satires on the court of James II, specially commissioned to serve his master William of Orange, as he manoeuvred for position in preparation for what would become the Glorious Revolution and William and Mary's ascent to the throne. De Hoeghe was never a big name in Britain, but through the print shops and print makers of London, art historians are confident that his work had an impact on the later images and tone of Hogarth. Ian gets to see the very best copies of the work of both men side by side.

Producer: Tom Alban

The 9th part of Ian Hislop's series of comedy originals turns to early satirical cartoons.

In the penultimate programme in his series exploring early examples of British humour, Ian turns to cartoon satire and the impact of a Dutchman on the satirical golden age.

Producer: Tom Alban

The last of Ian Hislop's series looking for British comedy originals celebrates comic song

In the last programme in his series looking for the origins of British comedy staples, Ian finds himself in a shed in Coventry enjoying an early collection of comic songs.

Ian begins his quest in the dark ages, not known as a well-spring of comic opportunity. Nevertheless, in the pages of the Venerable Bede's 'Ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum - Ecclesiastical History of England, there is wordplay. Not only that it's wordplay that obeys the comedy rule of three and it was potent enough to have a part in the naming of a nation. And how his fellow monks must have laughed.

Producer: Tom Alban

Ian Hislop begins his ten part comedy quest in search of ancient British Wordplay.

With the help of contemporary comedians, scholars and an appetite for enduring humour, Ian Hislop tracks down the earliest examples of enduring British comedy tropes and jokes.

Producer: Tom Alban

The second week of Ian Hislop's quest to records of early English jokes.

In the second week of his series looking at the origins of British comedy Ian unearths early examples of Parody, Satirical Cartoons and Comic song, but begins with animals.

Ian Hislop is back to continue his quest for the earliest possible examples of standard British joke types. His subject today, and for no particular reason beyond a certain amount of legal experience accrued over the years, is a search for the oldest lawyer jokes.

It leads him, with the guidance of Oxford professor Laura Ashe, to a 14th-century poem about the state of the nation, Piers Plowman.

Written at around 1370 by the poem William Langland it includes a brutal side-swipe at lawyers who already have a reputation for doing absolutely nothing unless money is involved. Ian also speaks to a contemporary lawyer and collector of lawyer jokes, Tim Bishop who helps explain the enduring popularity of jokes at the expense of his own profession.

Producer: Tom Alban

Ian Hislop returns to unearth the oldest examples of five varieties of British joke.

Ian Hislop goes back in time to discover the earliest example of a British comedy staple - jokes about lawyers.

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There was a time in the TV heyday of the 1970s when the mother-in-law joke was standard fare. It might be heard in the mouths of stand up comedians or even as part of the background of familiar sitcoms like the Rise and Fall of Reginald Perrin. With the help of Durham University classicist professor Edith Hall, Ian traces this very particular, and many would say archaic, joke type back to the Roman poet Juvenal by way of his 17th-century English translator John Dryden. A comic rant about mothers-in-law is part of a more general rant in his sixth satire in which he is trying to dissuade a young man from marrying by telling him how terrible women are.

Ian traces its intermittent journey from erudite translation via music hall performers to the late 20th-century TV days. He also debates the possibility that it may have to become something very different to survive in a more enlightened entertainment world.

Producer: Tom Alban

Ian Hislop returns to unearth the oldest examples of five varieties of British joke.

In the second of his latest series exploring old British joke varieties, Ian looks at a type of joke that faces an uncertain future - the mother-in-law joke.

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Not all joke varieties are good and healthy. Jokes about funny foreigners sail dangerously close to a wind that can take them into the territory of xenophobic punching down, especially when the teller of the joke is assuming a sense of superiority. But they have a history, a long history, and with the help of Professor Laura Ashe of Oxford University, Ian unearths an example from the 12th century. It's of a sideswipe at the Welsh, by way of an equal sideswipe at Cistercian monks. It might easily have been a joke about the French, another frequent target of early medieval humour, but it isn't. Nor is it entirely belittling, which as Ian discovers, is the ingredient that allows the funny foreigner joke to survive in some form to the present day. He also talks to Al Murray, aka the Pub Landlord, who often operates in this field and seeks to avoid the many attendant pitfalls.

Producer: Tom Alban

Ian Hislop returns to unearth the oldest examples of five varieties of British joke.

In the third programme in his new series looking at Britain's Oldest joke varieties, Ian Hislop negotiates the potentially xenophobic minefield of jokes about funny foreigners.

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In looking for the oldest refined examples of British comedy staples almost all roads lead to, even if they don't necessarily begin with, Geoffrey Chaucer. But when it comes to jokes about meanness, Chaucer produced one of the funniest and possibly the longest of all time. His most recent and celebrated biographer, Professor Marion Turner of Oxford University, guides Ian through the sharp satirical jabs and the broad crudeness of the Summoner's Tale, from his Canterbury Tales. Ian also talks to comedian Al Murray, aka the Pub Landlord, about why the meanness joke is such a sustaining comedy staple, and he follows it through to the modern era, avoiding the lazy national stereotypes while highlighting the Dickensian miser-in-chief Ebenezer Scrooge.

Producer: Tom Alban

Ian Hislop returns to unearth the oldest examples of five varieties of British joke.

Jokes that mock the mean and avaricious are the subject of the fourth quest in Ian Hislop's exploration of the oldest examples of British comedy tropes.

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In the past few years there has been a certain amount of reaction to jokes made about male inadequacy. Is it an example of feminist over-reach? Of the woke agenda inventing an unhelpful stereotype?

The answer provided by this last in the current series of Hislop's Oldest jokes is an unequivocal no. Ian traces the 'useless man' joke back to one of the most powerful dramatic traditions that ever existed in Britain, the mystery plays or mystery cycles. These retellings of Biblical stories didn't survive the Reformation, but they were popular the length and breadth of Britain, with a few surviving in manuscript form thanks to the censors.

Looking a the York Cycle in particular, with the guidance of Liverpool University's Professor Sarah Peverley, Ian finds feckless men in abundance. For starters, and perhaps rather surprisingly, there's Joseph the elderly husband of Mary the mother of Jesus, who is depicted as a hopeless potential cuckold figure. And then, a forerunner of black humour, there are the soldiers who are sent to crucify Jesus. Their blundering attitude and moaning about having sore backs and having to deal with shoddy carpentry are a vivid example of the juxtaposition of comedy and passion that isn't familiar today. Back in the 13th and 14th century there's no mistaking that the useless men are intended to portray to the audience that we are all part of a post-lapsarian world when set against the figure of the Messiah.

Meanwhile the feckless, bumbling bloke has gone on to deliver some of the most successful British comedic characters of all time, from Bottom in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream to Mr Bean.

Producer: Tom Alban

Ian Hislop returns to unearth the oldest examples of five varieties of British joke.

In the last of his series looking for the origins of British joke varieties, Ian challenges the notion that jokes about stupid men are examples of modern day wokeness gone mad.

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