Category Archives: Jokes

Happy Holiday

I hope everyone’s having a pleasant Groundhog’s Eve – or already had one if you’re in the Eastern Hemisphere.

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Best Match of Editor’s Name and Subject?

I’m torn between the Kiss Catullus – the online Catullus edited by Daniel Kiss (link) – and the Hankey Othello (link). Can anyone think of a third? Possibly the worst match between performer and subject (onomastically, I mean – he … Continue reading

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Anachronistic Joke

The hero of John Webster’s Duchess of Malfi, the only decent adult other than the title character, is her steward, Antonio Bologna. With a name like that, I can’t help wondering if his middle-school classmates called him ‘Tony Baloney’.

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Too Bad About the Gender

I love puns, even (or especially) the unintentional and bilingual kind. Browsing Cicero’s Verrines recently, I was very glad to run across a ‘most experienced and hardworking ploughman’ (experientissimus ac diligentissimus arator) named ‘Nympho’ (2.3.53-54).

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Best Name for the Next Pope?

As a Latinist inordinately fond of puns, I’m hoping whoever is elected will take the name Sixtus. Since the last Sixtus was Sixtus V, he would be Sixtus VI.

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Typecasting Joke

In the last two years, Patrick Earl of the American Shakespeare Center‘s touring troupe has played Giovanni in John Ford’s ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore and Ferdinand in John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi. Each one is the brother of … Continue reading

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How Hard Is It To Come Up With An Original Joke?

When a visiting friend’s cat stuck its head through my bedroom door at 4:00 am, it occurred to me that we could rename her ‘Snoop Catty Cat’. According to Bing, the phrase has already been used 28 times on the … Continue reading

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Just a Suggestion . . . .

Perhaps I’m just addicted to bad jokes and cultural allusions, but if I were Terry Teachout, I would have titled his latest post “Top of the world, ma!”.

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Comic Hyperbaton

I don’t believe I’ve ever seen this in manuals of rhetoric or lists of figures of speech, but these three sentences all use the same rhetorical trick: Nice we’re having weather, isn’t it? What’s a girl like you doing in … Continue reading

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Riddle

Why would ‘Noel’ be the most appropriate name for a priest’s pet parakeet?

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Amusing Comment in AP Vergil

In the funeral games in Aeneid V, which we read in English — none of it is in the AP selections — all five of the participants in the foot-race are given prizes (340-61). Vergilians will recall that Euryalus, Helymus, … Continue reading

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One-Word Joke

 Silius  Update: (9/5, 4:15pm) Since no one has ‘gotten’ it yet, here’s another version of the joke with the same answer:  Baebius  And here are two more, non-Classical this time, with a different, but parallel, answer:  Philip   Charles 

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After Long Silence

I haven’t posted much lately because I’ve been moving all my stuff from Baltimore to North Carolina for a new job. I’ll be teaching Latin II (second half of Wheelock), Latin IV (AP Vergil), Greek IV (Antigone and Apology) and … Continue reading

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A Riddle And A Pun

What would be the most appropriate dish to serve at a party celebrating the publication of a book on Martial, or the Priapea, or some other scurrilous and scoptic classic? Crudités, of course.

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Scholastic Humor

Found on Amazon: Martial, Buch VI: Ein Kommentar (Hypomnemata) by Farouk Grewing Availability: Currently unavailable. It is in fact still in print in Germany, for only 89 Euros — around $107 — in paperback, and worth every penny. For more … Continue reading

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Pedantic Mondegreen

A few days ago, the same friend whose book I so gravely defaced (see previous post) told me about Michael Quinion’s World Wide Words site,* which looks likely to fill many hours of my time in the next few weeks, … Continue reading

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Ex Libris

I thought I’d posted on this before, but Google disagrees. Apologies to anyone who has heard it before. The internet Classics list has been discussing how to say ‘Ex Libris’ in Greek, which reminded me (as so many things do) … Continue reading Continue reading

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Two Footnotes

I always have a mild urge to call them ‘feetnotes’ . . . . Two things that surprised me about Der Rosenkavalier at the Met yesterday: 1. I don’t think I’d ever heard a non-ironic non-metaphorical use of the word … Continue reading

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