{"id":26415,"date":"2017-10-31T11:49:20","date_gmt":"2017-10-31T15:49:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=26415"},"modified":"2017-11-08T14:24:01","modified_gmt":"2017-11-08T19:24:01","slug":"our-ancestors-humor-halloween-jokes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/our-ancestors-humor-halloween-jokes.html","title":{"rendered":"Our Ancestors\u2019 Humor: Halloween Jokes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction<\/em><\/strong>: In this article, Mary Harrell-Sesniak searches old newspapers to find Halloween jokes that made our ancestors chuckle. Mary is a genealogist, author and editor with a strong technology background.<\/em><\/p>\n

Just for fun, here are a few jokes to celebrate Halloween I found in GenealogyBank\u2019s Historical Newspaper Archives<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Greensboro Record (Greensboro, North Carolina), 4 March 1922, page 10<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

See if you can guess the answers to these Halloween jokes \u2013 then read the rest of this article, where newspaper clippings provide the answers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
(1846) Why is a grave-yard like a counter?<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
(1865) Why is a spider a good correspondent?<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
(1871) Why is a coffin like an axe with a dull edge?<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
(1872) Why do carpenters charge more for coffins than for tables and chairs?<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
(1885) Why is a ghost up a tree like a man eating his dinner?<\/td>\n <\/p>\n

 <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

(1899) Why is a grave-digger like a waterman?<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
(1900) Why is a ghost like a muffin?<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

From 1846<\/strong><\/p>\n

Q: Why is a grave-yard like a counter?<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Wisconsin Argus (Madison, Wisconsin), 14 July 1846, page 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A: Because it\u2019s the place where you must \u201cdown with your dust [money, or gold dust].\u201d<\/p>\n

From 1865<\/strong><\/p>\n

Q: Why is a spider a good correspondent?<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
American Citizen (Butler, Pennsylvania), 4 January 1865, page 2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A: Because he drops a line by every post.<\/p>\n

From 1871<\/strong><\/p>\n

Q: Why is a coffin like an axe with a dull edge?<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Catholic Standard (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), 20 May 1871, page 8<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A: Because it has to be ground before it is used.<\/p>\n

From 1872<\/strong><\/p>\n

Q: Why do carpenters charge more for coffins than chairs and tables?<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Highland Weekly News (Hillsborough, Ohio), 31 October 1872, page 2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A: \u201cBecause people won\u2019t bring coffins back to us to be repaired.\u201d<\/p>\n

From 1885<\/strong><\/p>\n

Q: Why is a ghost up a tree like a man eating his dinner?<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Daily Illinois State Register (Springfield, Illinois), 24 June 1885, page 4<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A: Because he\u2019s a goblin up the hash [ash tree].<\/p>\n

From 1899<\/strong><\/p>\n

Q: Why is a grave-digger like a waterman?<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Denver Post (Denver, Colorado), 1 November 1899, page 9<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A: He handles the skulls [sculling, i.e., rowing].<\/p>\n

From 1900<\/strong><\/p>\n

Q: Why is a ghost like a muffin?<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Repository (Canton, Ohio), 22 April 1900, page 19<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A: They are both fancy bred (bread).<\/p>\n

Happy Halloween!<\/p>\n

Hope everyone enjoys the fun day, but please be safe and remember: it can be a very boo-tiful day! Just don\u2019t go goblin up too much of your kid\u2019s candy!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this article, Mary Harrell-Sesniak searches old newspapers to find Halloween jokes that made our ancestors chuckle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":26459,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12641],"tags":[59,1037,5322,2020],"class_list":["post-26415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-humor-sayings","tag-halloween","tag-holidays","tag-humor","tag-newspaper-archives"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/photo-1030-2015-featured-graphic-jack-o-lantern.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26415\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}