As a literary genre, jokes that create fictional human types through humor hold an important place in Turkish oral prose tradition. The transformation of prose jokes into poetic form has attracted scholarly attention since the early 20th century. Figures such as M. Fuad Köprülü and Orhan Veli Kanık produced and published poetic versions of Nasreddin Hoca jokes. Continuing this line, Yusuf Mısırlıoğlu, a minstrel who performed without instruments, transformed 53 jokes—mostly Temel Jokes—into verse in his book Temel Bir Gün (“One Day, Temel”). This study analyzes the structure and content of those poetic texts, emphasizing Mısırlıoğlu’s role and contributions to the transformation of joke narratives into verse and his significance within the tradition of Turkish humorous oral literature.
Joke, joke types, Temel jokes, Yusuf Mısırlıoglu.