500 Tarts And One Sexy Roman Emperor (Laughter week) - That Was Genius Episode 50

<p>Finally, something to laugh about - this week's episode is all about the humour (well it's rarely about the history)!</p> <p>Tom kicks us off with a look at the Philogelos (Love of Laughter), the oldest known jokebook. Written by a couple of witty Greeks in around 400AD, it pokes fun at students, foreigners, and sufferers of bad breath. And it has at least a 5% success rate when it comes to actually making you laugh.</p> <p>Meanwhile Sam's discovered the Berners Street Hoax, an 1810 prank which saw every tradesman in London called to one house in London, grinding the entire city to a halt and causing a national scandal.</p> <p>Honourable mentions go to whoopee cushion inventor, the Roman Emperor Elagabalus, and biological bat poo prankster William Buckland, who's fertiliser graffiti got heads scratching at Oxford University in the 1790s.</p> <p>Subscribe and listen to us! <a href='http://bit.ly/TWGitunes'>Apple Music</a> // <a href='http://www.thatwasgeniuspodcast.com/'>Podbean</a> // <a href='https://overcast.fm/itunes1452660965/that-was-genius'>Overcast</a> // <a href='http://bit.ly/TWGStitcher'>Stitcher</a> // <a href='http://bit.ly/GeniusTuneIn'>TuneIn</a> // <a href='http://bit.ly/TWGSpotify'>Spotify</a></p> <p>Welcome to That Was Genius: Two blokes. A 12-hour time difference. An immature sense of humour. And 10,000 years of human civilisation. A weekly podcast looking at the weirder side of history.</p> <p>Join Sam Datta-Paulin (he likes history and lives in Britain) and Tom Berry (he also likes history but lives in New Zealand), for a weekly reflection on the bold, the brilliant... And the downright strange.</p> <p>From bizarre events and stories to equally odd inventions, barely a day goes by without something incredible (or incredibly stupid) happening around the world.</p> <p>We upload new episodes every Wednesday night/Thursday morning (UK time).</p> <p>Check us out on <a href='https://www.facebook.com/thatwasgeniuspodcast/'>Facebook</a>, <a href='https://instagram.com/thatwasgenius'>Instag