I'm currently reading a Victorian reissue of an 18th-century jestbook. 49 jokes from the original text were omitted on account of the "greater delicacy observed in modern society & conversation."

But which gags were too rude for the Victorians? Let's find out!

Thread :

The book in question is Joe Miller's Jests (1739) — a famous anthology of quips and comic annecdotes that was regularly reprinted and expanded. I'm comparing the original text to an edition that circulated in the 1830s and 1840s (so, fairly early in the Victorian era). /2

The censored edition cut out all of the jokes of a sexual nature. Here's the first one to be omitted.

[You'll see that some words in the 18th-century text are printed with a 'long s' that looks like the letter 'f'. So, 'ftriding' means 'striding' and 'fhe' means 'she', etc.] /3

Fart jokes were also cut out! /4

Gags about bad breath were also left out of the Victorian editions of the joke book. /5

Crude language was sometimes censored in the 18th-century edition too. Needless to say, this joke was completely cut from the Victorian edition. The censored word, I believe, is 'arse' or 'arsehole'. /6

Sexual inuendo (particularly delivered by women) was evidently considered unsuitable for respectable Victorian tastes. This one has a long set-up, but the punchline is worth it! /7

The Victorian edition of Joe Miller featured plenty of witty (and often rather barbed) comebacks, but this one was evidently considered a bit too crude! /8

[I’m not a naturally confrontational man, but now I’m waiting with baited breath for the opportunity to insult someone and promise to “kick them into hell.”]

Jokes about erections were *definitely* too risque for the Victorian reissue of this jestbook. /9

Impotence — or indeed any topic that strayed into the realm of private marital affairs — was also deemed to be off-limits for the Victorian edition. /10

Quite a few jokes about cuckolding were cut from the Victorian edition. /11

Jokes featuring sexually promiscuous women were also cut from the Victorian version of Joe Miller. Tamer jests about women juggling multiple suitors persisted throughout the 19thC, but rarely went further than depicting lovers kissing/cuddling in a parlour. /12

Giggling at penises? Not for the Victorians! At least, not in ostensibly respectable circles. They definitely told dick jokes behind closed doors.

'to make water' = to urinate

/13

[I recall an account of one of Punch Magazine's weekly dinner parties where Thackeray reportedly cracked a joke about his own urethral stricture, while Shirley Brooks asked his mates what planet they'd see if they put their head between their legs (Uranus)]

Mentioning childbirth in any detail would probably have rendered this joke unsuitable for a respectable Victorian jestbook, but this one also features a rather suggestive insult! /14

[Perhaps I'm explaining the obvious here, but just in case: the woman says that her friend's *throat* must be very narrow, which is funny because we know that she's REALLY thinking that a different organ must be very wide/loose!]

There are LOTS of reasons why this joke was cut from the Victorian edition of Joe Miller!

I'm sure that plenty of Victorian gentlemen continued trying to 'press' the 'Bubbies' of their mother's chambermaid, they just weren't allowed to do it in *print*. /15

Eighteenth-century humour seems to have been totally unphased by bodily functions and intimate medical details — in fact, it often revelled in the grotesque. The Victorians were much more squeamish about discussing these things in polite conversation. /16

Jokes about womens' sexual desire/agency were much more common in the eighteenth century. This one was predictably cut from the Victorian edition. /17

The Victorians *loved* a witty pun at the dinner table, but this piece of x-rated banter was far too risque.
/18

John Dryden:

Another eighteenth-century cuckolding joke that the Victorians cut out of Joe Miller's Jests. /19

Another perfectly servicable pun that was sacrificed on the alter of decorum. /20

More innuendo cut from the Victorian edition of Joe Miller!

'Yard' = a roll of cloth, but also slang for a penis.
Linnen = her undergarments.
/21

Brothels continued to operate in the Victorian era, but people seem to have joked about them much less openly. These two gags were both cut from the 19th century reissue of Joe Miller.

'Seraglio' = Georgian slang term for a brothel.
/22

Jokes about sex workers also went out of fashion during the Victorian era, but were fairly common in Georgian jestbooks. This one was cut from the 19thC Joe Miller. /23

Most Georgian jokes depicted women as enthusiastic participants in sex, or else as reasonably tollerant recipients/rebuffers of male advances. I only found one joke about rape in the 18thC edition of Joe Miller, which is a lot less than at the Edinburgh festival in 2012...
/24

[Side note: I'm not suggesting here that eighteenth-century sexual politics were unproblematic; loads of the jokes in this thread reveal a culture in which men felt entitled to touch/ogle/discuss women's bodies without consent]

This joke — inevitably cut from the Victorian edition of Joe Miller — featured an eighteenth-century version of Truth Or Dare!
/25

Here's a game of 'Questions and Commands' depicted by Gillray (1788)

This is a strange one. Lovers hiding in a wardrobe when a husband returns home early are a familiar comic trope, but this lotherio seems to have brought his manservant along!
/26

Anyway — you get the picture. Jokes featuring sex, bodily functions, and coarse language were all ommitted from the Victorian reissues of Joe Miller. Of course, this plays neatly into our preconceptions of the Victorians as prudish and joyless, but... /27

... I'm confident that they continued to joke about, and *do*, these things in private. A sea change in public manners pushed this kind of ribald humour beyond the boundaries of respectable print. This poses problems for historians. /28

I've found tantalising glimpses of the ribald jokes that Victorians might've told behind closed doors. The Pearl Magazine (1879), for instance, circulated privately and features eyewateringly graphic sexual limericks! /29 https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Pearl/Volume_1/Nursery_Rhymes

All of this is a long way of me saying: if you find any rude Victorian jokes, send them my way! We can't let the Georgians have all the fun...
/30

Right, that's all the filth I have to peddle for today. Your normal daily service of torturous Victorian puns will resume shortly. Thanks for reading! /31

Addendum: if you want to learn more about Georgian humour, I heartily recommend Vic Gatrell’s ‘City of Laughter.’ It’s a brilliantly written, and copiously illustrated, book. I’ll be happy if I end up writing something half a good for the nineteenth century.