The Daily Stoic - Cicero on How to Tell a Joke

Episode Date: April 11, 2021

Today’s episode features a section from Michael Fontaine’s How to Tell a Joke: An Ancient Guide to the Art of Humor published by Princeton University Press and HighBridge audio, a division of Recorded Books. How to Tell a Joke is a modern translation and collection of Cicero and Quintilian’s timeless advice about how to use humor to win over any audience.This episode is brought to you by Policygenius. Policygenius helps you compare top insurers in one place, and it lets you save 50% or more on life insurance. Policygenius will help you find the insurance coverage you need. You can save 50% or more by comparing quotes. And when your life insurance policy is sorted out, you’ll know that your family will be protected if anything happens. Just go to policygenius.com to get started. Policygenius: when it comes to insurance, it’s nice to get it right.This episode is also brought to you by LMNT, the maker of electrolyte drink mixes that help you stay active at home, work, the gym, or anywhere else. Electrolytes are a key part of a happy, healthy body. Right now you can receive a free LMNT Sample Pack for only $5 for shipping. To claim this exclusive deal you must go to drinkLMNT.com/dailystoic. Get your FREE Sample Pack now. If you don’t love it, they will refund your $5 no questions asked.***If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps with our visibility, and the more people listen to the podcast, the more we can invest into it and make it even better.Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: http://DailyStoic.com/signupFollow @DailyStoic:Twitter: https://twitter.com/dailystoicInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/dailystoic/Facebook: http://facebook.com/dailystoicYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/dailystoicSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey, prime members, you can listen to the Daily Stoke podcast early and add free on Amazon music download the app today Welcome to the weekend edition of the Daily Stoke each weekday We bring you a meditation inspired by the ancient Stokes Something to help you live up to those four Stoke virtues of courage justice Temperance and wisdom. And then here on the weekend, we take a deeper dive into those same topics. We interview stoic philosophers.

We explore at length how these stoic ideas can be applied to our actual lives and the challenging issues of our time. Here on the weekend, when you have a little bit more space when things have slowed down, be sure to take some time to think, to go for a walk, to sit with your journal, and most importantly, to prepare for what the week ahead may bring. Hi, I'm David Brown, the host of Wunderree's podcast business wars.

And in our new season, Walmart must fight off target, the new discounter that's both savvy and fashion forward. Listen to business wars on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey everyone, it's Ryan Holiday. Welcome to a special episode of the Daily Stoke Podcast. I have raved now many times about one of my favorite series of books, The Princeton University Presses Ancient Wisdom Series. It's the ancient wisdom series for modern readers, that's what it's called. And I've read a bunch of these. I've read How to Be Free from Epic Titus.

I've read How to Die. That's James Rom's edition of Seneca. I've read, there one, How to Be a Bad Emperor, which is a translation of Sutonius. I've read Plutarchs, How to Be a Leader. I've read a whole bunch of them. I've read the original texts that they pull from as well, but it's kind of a great way to just sort of go back through and get the really important parts of these texts. So if you haven't read Thucydides, if you haven't read Plutarch, if you haven't read Santa Caffee,

if you haven't read Epictetus, these are great places to start, and then you can go read the full text, or if you have read the full text, this is kind of a great booster of those things. Well, they have been kind enough to give us some excerpts, and they have a new edition of Cicero with a funny title it's called How to Tell a Joke.

It's translated with commentary from Michael Fontaine. For most of us, we think of Cicero as this sort of old, dead white guy, which of course he was, but he's this complicated figure, but he's also one of the most compelling speakers who ever lived. A real master of his craft, as I write about in Lives of the Stokes.

And in this edition, we have Cicero telling us how the ideal order needs a sense of humor. Again we think of the Stokes, we think of the ancients as being really dry as not having a sense of humor. But then as now one of the best ways to keep an audience is to be funny, to have to be able to tell a good story, to be able to make them laugh, to be clever. And Cicero was funny, like really funny. One of my favorite Cicero quotes is, no man dances when he is sober, unless he is a lunatic.

And every time I tweet this, it gets a bunch of retweets. And I just, I love that 2000 years later, the joke still works. The Stokes had jokes. The Stokes were funny, I mean, as it happens, Krasipis, one of the early Stokes dies laughing. So, this is a good book. I'm excited to bring you this quick excerpt. It's not a step-by-step guide on how to compose jokes really, but it's more of a guide to how humor can and should be used as a tool to help win an

argument, to help make a case for something. This is a great book. You can check out how to tell a joke. Anywhere books are sold. There's a great physical edition that come in these perfectly sized hard covers which you can check out. And then of course, you can get the audiobook

anywhere books are sold. You can check this one out on Amazon, Audible, and you can check it on an iBooks wherever. And here is a fun excerpt from Cicero's How to Tell a Joke. How to Tell a Joke. Cicero on the Ideal Orator. Humorous Caesar, explain jokes. Caesar takes a stab. Antony Humor and joking, though, is fun, and often wicked effective. Every other aspect of public speaking might be teachable by rules, but humor is obviously

something you're born with, and rules can't do anything for it. Caesar, in my view, you're far better than others at this, so you can easily back me up the joking, either one isn't a teachable skill, or two, if it is, then you're the best person to teach it to us. Caesar, actually, I think a decent funny man can discuss anything with greater wit than wit itself. Let me explain. I once saw these Greek books titled on humour and got excited, thinking I'd learn something from them. What I found though was lots of Greek quips and jokes, which make sense since the people of Sicily, roads

by Xantium and above all Athens are the leaders in this area. But they were so ridiculous when they tried to schematize, systematize, and teach the rules behind them that the only thing I could laugh at was how ridiculous they were. And that's why, to me at least, it seems impossible to teach a course in the topic you want. The thing is, jokes actually come in two forms. The first kind permeate an entire speech, while the other come fast and raise a sharp. The ancients called the first kind stick, and the second a sick burn. Both have funny names, which make sense since the whole business of making people laugh is, winking,

funny stuff. That said, Anthony, you're right. I've often seen humor accomplish a great deal at trial, but you don't need rules for that first category of ongoing banter, that is, schtick, because people are shaped by their genetics, and it's that, plus some help from their facial expressions and voices and manner of speech itself, which makes them funny impressionists or storytellers. And since that's true, then in the second category, that is, Sick Burns, too, whereas Zinger has to get fired off and hit its target before anyone could seemingly even think of it, well, how could there be rules? I mean, rules couldn't have helped my brother Barker here when Philip asked him, what what you howling for, and he shot back, I see a thief.

And what could rules have done for Crasseys, anywhere in that speech he gave in probate court against Scayovila, or in the one defending Gaius Planckas against Brutus? Really, Antony, everyone thinks the honour you pay me should go to Crosseus, because he's pretty much the only one you'll find who excels at both kinds of wit, that is, in the first category of keeping up the talk and in the second category of snappy comebacks. I mean his entire speech, defending curious against Skavela, was bursting with good-natured category one ribbing. It didn't have those category two zingers because he wanted to spare his opponent's dignity and in doing that he kept his own, and that is the hardest thing for quick-witted people

to do. To take stock of the people, the circumstances, and to hold back the quips that come to mind, even when it would be totally hilarious to save them. Accordingly, and this is pretty funny, some jokers twist these lines of enius. When his mouth's on fire it's easier for a wise man to suppress the flames than a good remark. To say, when his mouth's on fire, it's easier for a wise-ass to suppress the flames than a good wise-crack. They claim the good or helpful part of Ennius's Dicta obviously has to mean funny, because Dictor, remark, already means wise crack all by itself.

But as much as Crasse's kept away from those in dealing with scavela and instead made light of the trial and their disagreement with the other kind, the one that doesn't entail roasting anyone, when it came to Marcus Brutus, who he hated and thought deserved abuse, he unloaded with both kinds. We've got a quick message from one of our sponsors here and then we'll get right back to the show. Stay tuned. Raising kids can be one of the greatest rewards of a parent's life. But come on, someday's parenting is unbearable.

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And the next time you step on yet another stray Lego in the middle of the night, you'll feel less alone. So if you like to laugh with us as we talk about the hardest job in the world, listen to, I love my kid, but wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen ad-free on the Amazon Music or Wondery app. He went crazy on the spa, Brutus had recently sold off and the inheritance he'd burned through. And those zingers, such as when Brutus said, I don't see what I'm up here sweating for, and he snapped back no surprise there you did just get out of the spa.

There are countless ones like that, but the continuous banter was just as funny. I mean, Brutus called in a couple readers to quote from a pair of policy speeches, Crasus had given to different audiences, and then pointed out sections where Crasus had allegedly flip-flopped. And that's when our friend Crasus here asked, cracking up, it was totally hilarious. Three people to come read bits from the three books of the dialogue on civil law that Brutus' dad had written. Let me quote Crasus' rebuttal. Caesar quotes from Crasus' rebuttal. Caesar now quotes extracts from Crasus' rebuttal. The first three extracts begin with an inset quotation from Brutus' father's book, followed by Crasas' commentary. First came book one, My son, Marcus, and I once found ourselves at our villa in Pruverna. Brutus, your father's going on record that he left

you in a state in Pruverna. Then came book two. My son Marcus and I were at our villa in Alba. This guy is clearly a genius, one of the smartest in the country. He knew, glancing at Brutus, this black hole. He was worried that once Brutus didn't have anything, people would assume he hadn't been left anything. Then came book three, which is the last one, he wrote. I heard scavola say there are three authentic books by Brutus. My son Marcus and I found ourselves hold up at our villa in Tivoli. Brutus, where are these states your father left you?

The request is recorded right here, in this published treatise. If he didn't think you were already grown up, I guess your father would have written a fourth book to document that, my son and I were having a conversation at our spa. Everyone, everyone would agree that Brutus got brought down by this ribbing and those wise cracks just as effectively as by those tragedies. Crasseus acted out when, at the same trial, the funeral procession for a distant relative of Brutus' an old woman happened to come passing by. Good gods, you should have seen it, his zap, so sudden, so out of nowhere.

Crassus fixed his eyes on Brutus, loomed over him with his every gesture, and in a torrent of eloquence entoned, Brutus, why? Are you just sitting there? What do you want that lady to go tell your father? What should she tell all those people whose funeral masks are parading by? What about your ancestors? What about Lucius Brutus? The man who freed this nation from tyranny?

What should she say you're doing with your life? What achievements? What accomplishments? What greatness should she say you're working on. Increasing the wealth you inherited. But real nobles don't do that, and even if they did. Well, there's nothing left. You partied it all away. Law school, like your father. Come on, she'll tell them that when you sold the house you sold your father's barrister chair right along with it. A military career? You've never seen a barracks! Excellence

in public speaking? You're no good at it! Besides, you've used what tongue and voice you do have for that most shameful way of making a buck. Bad mouthing. Do you really have the nerve to appear in public to look at these folks here, to show your face in the forum? Show it in Rome. Show it to your fellow citizens. Don't you panic at the sight of that dead lady at those masks going by? You've left yourself no room, not only to imitate them, but heck,

even to display them. It was a majestic performance out of this world. His endless quips and zingers, though, you can remember from just a single speech of his, because there's never been such an epic display of prowess or public speech more impressive than the one he recently gave attacking his colleague in office and never one so well-peppered with good humour. And that's why I agree with you, Anthony, on both points. One, jokes are, often highly effective in public speaking, and two, there's just no way to teach them systematically. I really am surprised you gave me so much credit in this area instead

of awarding the Crown to Crosace as in every other area. Thanks so much for listening. If you could leave a review for the podcast, we'd really appreciate it. The reviews make a difference and of course every nice review from a nice person helps balance out. The crazy people who get triggered and angry anytime we say something they disagree with. So if you could rate this podcast and leave a review on iTunes, that would mean so much to us and it would really help the show. We appreciate it and I'll see you next episode. Hey, Prime Members, you can listen to the Daily Stoic early and ad free on Amazon Music.

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