Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2016 January 21

= January 21 =

Did people in early ancient history have any fun or laugh?
Nowadays, people laugh when they have fun. Did people in early ancient history have any fun or laugh or laugh while having fun? Or could it be that they may have had other way to express contentment? 140.254.136.149 (talk) 18:35, 21 January 2016 (UTC)
 * How could we be know? ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 19:28, 21 January 2016 (UTC)
 * According to Diogenes Laertius, the philosopher Chrysippus died from a fit of laughter (, par. VII). --Wrongfilter (talk) 19:37, 21 January 2016 (UTC)


 * Tiny babies laugh. It's an innate human thing.  Would that have manifested itself only in the past millennium?  I rather think not.  That's laughter.
 * Fun is a tougher nut to crack. It's a very personal thing, and it isn't always associated with laughter.  But just google "fun in ancient times" and you'll get articles like this, about what the ancient Babylonians did for fun.  --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  20:27, 21 January 2016 (UTC)


 * Ancient history is all about the skeletons, and skeletons are the happiest people on earth. I don't know how many muscles you need to frown, but it's more than zero. InedibleHulk (talk) 00:02, 22 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Always smiling, but only laugh when something tickles their funny bones. BAHAHAHA! InedibleHulk (talk) 00:22, 22 January 2016 (UTC)


 * Democritus was called the laughing philosopher. Why? InedibleHulk (talk) 00:26, 22 January 2016 (UTC)


 * Thalia seems like a fun girl. InedibleHulk (talk) 00:28, 22 January 2016 (UTC)


 * Old Comedy sounds relevant. InedibleHulk (talk) 00:30, 22 January 2016 (UTC)


 * Here's an ancient Roman wall painting that shows the artist had a sense of humor: (NSFW): . StuRat (talk) 08:10, 22 January 2016 (UTC)


 * What humor? It seems pretty underwhelming to me, if I may use myself as a ... er, yardstick.  :)  --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  21:22, 22 January 2016 (UTC)


 * Size aside, there's whipping out the scale, among other things, which seems amusing. StuRat (talk) 18:00, 24 January 2016 (UTC)


 * See also Laughter in animals.  Ghmyrtle (talk) 09:24, 22 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Not even a mention of the hyena, who've done their thing for about twenty million years. Of course, serious people insist their thing is nervous laughter, not the happy kind. InedibleHulk (talk) 19:56, 22 January 2016 (UTC)


 * The Biblical patriarch Isaac's name means 'He laughed'; even assuming he's completely fictional, his story dates back to early in the 1st millennium BCE if not earlier. AlexTiefling (talk) 11:22, 22 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Depends on what you mean by early human history. History is normally defined as the time for which there is some surviving record of events - the last 5500 years or so. Since people now are not that different to people then, one assumes so, even if it wasn't really what the king's scribes were most keen on writing down about. If you mean during human evolution (i.e. before the emergence of the modern human species) then good question, see here for some idea. Other mammals (and indeed birds) certainly find amusement in play, even if they don't have a way to express humour. Blythwood (talk) 17:33, 24 January 2016 (UTC)