Laughs are easy to find today. Comedians tell jokes onstage. And there are all kinds of funny TV shows. But in times, minstrels were the masters of comedy. Those entertainers traveled around, getting giggles.
What was funny back then?
It’s hard to know. Minstrels usually didn’t write down their shows. Jokes, songs, and stories were passed around by speaking. Many of those bits are gone. A recent study is peeking at the laughs of the past though. It looks at a medieval comedy routine!
James Wade is behind this study. The expert looked at an old text. A man named Richard Heege wrote the words in 1480. Heege wrote about a minstrel’s show in England.
“Most medieval poetry, song, and storytelling has been lost,” Wade said. He called the routine “mad and , but valuable.”
In some ways, past comedy was like today’s. “Stand-up comedy has always involved taking risks. And these texts are risky!” Wade said. “They poke fun at everyone.”
Leaders and kings weren’t safe from jokes. Neither were poorer people. One bit is about hunters going after a rabbit. By the end, a hunter is scared of the rabbit. Another story was about three kings. They ate so much that their bellies burst open. Sword-fighting oxen came out of them.
This shows us what life was like in the past. “People back then partied more than we do,” Wade said. So minstrels performed a lot. “They were really important,” Wade added. These texts show a “medieval life being lived well.”
Updated June 9, 2023, 5:01 P.M. (ET)
By Ashley Morgan
