I can't help it

I was so depressed about not finding any good TV on tonight I went looking for some humour to cheer me up. In my usual lost while looking for something else way of getting at the truth I came across a bit of joke history.

Seems the ancient Egyptians had the jump on joking around. Picture based jokes (cartoons) were the most common. Animal cartoons the favourite. Many were very crude. Depictions of odd couplings with obvious reference to politicians of the day were very popular. Nothing new there.

Many of the animal cartoons weren't rude, but amazingly modern. Cartoons featuring cavorting monkeys playing musical instruments or ducks and cats biting people on the ass appeared throughout Egypt. Even the dogs playing cards and smoking was upstaged by the silly Egyptians. There is an ancient papyrus with a lion and an antelope playing checkers or something.

The ancient Greeks liked jokes too. Here's one from Philogelos or The Lover of Laughter, a 4th century joke book, replete with 265 jokes.

No.9"Wishing to teach his donkey not to eat, a pedant did not offer him any food. When the donkey died of hunger, he said "I've had a great loss. Just when he had learned not to eat, he died."

or

No. 203: Someone went to a charlatan prophet and inquired if his rival would come back from a voyage. The prophet promised that he could not. But the man found out a few days later that he had come back. "Well," said the prophet, "how shameless can you get?"