What is the Sumerian Bar Joke?
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ur-gir₁₅-re ec₂-dam-ce₃ in-kur₉-ma
nij₂ na-me igi nu-mu-un-du₈
ne-en jal₂ taka₄-en-e-ce
Translation: A dog walked into a tavern and said, “I can’t see a thing. I’ll open this one.”
Explanation: Some suggest that the inn also apparently served as a brothel (notes that the word used in the proverb for an inn or tavern, “éš-dam”, can also be translated as “brothel”, and it was common in ancient Mesopotamia for sex work to take place in these establishments), and thus “the dog wanted to see what was ‘going on behind closed doors'”.