Laughs in Lethbridge

Four unidentified staff members wearing white wigs and dressed in skirts put on a comedy skit at an Eaton's party, c. 1960s.
Image courtesy the Galt Museum & Archives | Akaisamitohkanao’pa, 20191083226

Not all humour ages gracefully, as anyone who grew up subjected to dad jokes can tell you. Context gets lost, punchlines become predictable; when was the last time a knock-knock joke got a laugh from you? It’s easy to see, then, how printed jokes in the newspaper fell out of fashion. This doesn’t mean, though, that old newspapers are entirely humourless today. Indeed, some jokes published over a century ago still prove funny today!

One longform joke comes from the March 10, 1910 issue of the Lethbridge Herald:

Dave Gibson performs in a comedy skit with an unidentified Eaton's staff member at an Eaton's party, c. 1950s.
Image courtesy the Galt Museum & Archives | Akaisamitohkanao’pa, 20191083230

A gentleman was shown into the editor’s room.
‘I have written a poem on The Dog,’ he said.
‘What dog?’ demanded the editor fiercely.
‘It is not any particular dog,’ faltered the poet.
‘Do you mean to say that you took advantage of the dog because it was not particular, and wrote your poem on it?’
‘I am afraid you do not understand me,’ explained the caller meekly. ‘I wrote the poem regarding the dog—‘
‘But why were you regarding the dog at all? What had it done?’
‘If you will allow me to explain, I had been inspired by the dog’s fidelity—‘
‘If the dog was faithful, why should you seek to hurt its feelings by writing a poem on it? And again, how did you manage to write a poem on it? Did you have the poor brute shaved and tattoo the verses on its back, or did you merely write them on? Perhaps you—‘
But the poet had fled.

And some claim absurd humour is a new concept! Often, the simplest concepts can prove the funniest. This is a noticeable pattern through shorter Herald jokes, with many published in a simple “dialogue” format. Along with more efficient comedy, this also would have been cheaper to print! Some of these dialogue-format jokes even mirror common punchlines today, including one joke from a July 1917 issue:

Dave Gibson performs in a comedy skit with an unidentified Eaton's staff member at an Eaton's party, c. 1950s.
Image courtesy the Galt Museum & Archives | Akaisamitohkanao’pa, 20191083230

’I burgled a lawyer’s house the other night, and he was there with a gun to meet me. He advised me to get out.’
‘You got off easy.’
‘Not much, I didn’t. He charged me $5 for the advice.’

The joke is enhanced considerably when noting that $5 in 1917 is just over $100 today!

Some forms of newspaper comedy haven’t vanished entirely. Comic strips are even more prevalent in today’s issues than they were a century ago, though they most certainly weren’t absent; the famed Bringing Up Father strip by George McManus, for example, was published in almost every single 1920s issue of the Herald.

Reading about these jokes is often less exciting than finding them yourself. To start your journey through Lethbridge’s history, visit galtmuseum.com/research.