Well researched. And pretty much dead on. There is some ambiguity concerning the dominant language when the joke as we know it was recorded, but the source is generally assumed to be Sumerian and the language is Sumerian. There have been some debates as to the translation- when translated with some subtle differences in how the language is interpreted, the joke makes more sense but still isn’t generally very funny to modern readers.
Some points of contention involve things like verb meaning or word play and culture. So a “Tavern” being a place culturally that could be linked to sex or prostitution- and some of the verbs can be interpreted to have sexual tones or even be puns for dirty words. There are also interrogations where it is implied linguistically that the dog is talking about it’s own eyes- that basically it says it can’t see- then is like: “maybe if I open my eyes.. yeah. That’s better.” There are a few other interpretations and readings as well- including some theories…
That it is less a joke and more a sort of.. parable or such. That it is somehow metaphorical for a quest for information or “unseen truth” or how there are constantly things going on in front of us we don’t see (one of the points that lead some to speculate there may be some political humor behind it- akin to modern memes where a person is like: “oh, you have a PHD? Well this guy is on YouTube so I’ll trust him..”) It seems most supported it is or was some sort of joke- the historical record shows a good sampling of animal themed jokes and such- including a few more about a dog which are none too relatable to modern readers lol.
Overall the take away is that even experts in the culture and language don’t really understand it. There are theories, most or all are disputed by someone somewhere- and humor is very cultural. Even jokes from elections or such from a few decades back can be lost on someone who didn’t live the events or doesn’t have someone with first hand experience to explain. A great example is how so many memes require you to have seen a certain television show or be familiar with a meme or meme format to get the joke. Placing “F for respect” over an image of a movie character being rejected by their crush would make no sense to someone who didn’t know that scene and wasn’t a gamer or regular consumer of memes. All the context has been lost. So it is probably the widest held interpretation that we simply don’t have the context and there isn’t enough ancient text to provide what we need to understand or say with authority what is going on. Fun stuff.
It does however at least show that the “walls into a bar” joke set up has been around a looong time. On that subject- there is a joke that goes: “three men walk into a bar…. And say ‘ow.”
If one didn’t realize a “bar” could refer to a cylindrical solid object like the bars of a jail cell etc- that joke would make no sense. It’s not the greatest joke ever to start lol. So it could be as simple as us not having enough information on contemporary language or the linguistic immersion to understand some very basic pun- but I threw that in as a post example that came to mind, the point here is just- “walked into a bar” is literally an ancient joke format. Lol.
the joke was supposedly one of he first recorded jokes in history, dating back to Sumer
Some points of contention involve things like verb meaning or word play and culture. So a “Tavern” being a place culturally that could be linked to sex or prostitution- and some of the verbs can be interpreted to have sexual tones or even be puns for dirty words. There are also interrogations where it is implied linguistically that the dog is talking about it’s own eyes- that basically it says it can’t see- then is like: “maybe if I open my eyes.. yeah. That’s better.” There are a few other interpretations and readings as well- including some theories…
If one didn’t realize a “bar” could refer to a cylindrical solid object like the bars of a jail cell etc- that joke would make no sense. It’s not the greatest joke ever to start lol. So it could be as simple as us not having enough information on contemporary language or the linguistic immersion to understand some very basic pun- but I threw that in as a post example that came to mind, the point here is just- “walked into a bar” is literally an ancient joke format. Lol.