It's Called Recycling!
"I'll tell you what's wrong with it. It's dead, that's what's wrong with it."
For those who believe the ancient Greeks came up with most things first, proof has been found in a 4th century AD joke book that they were right! Obviously written by a relative of the Monty Python crowd the Dead Parrot sketch, where a man returns a parrot to a shop complaining it is dead, was originally written about a slave.
The 1,600 year-old joke book "Philogelos: The Laugh Addict," is one of the world's oldest joke books - it features the gag where a man complains that a slave he has only recently bought has died. "By the gods," replies the slave seller, "when he was with me, he never did any such thing!"
Is this the root of one of the funniest ever Monty Python sketches - "The Dead Parrot"? which contains the immortal and hysterical lines "It's not dead, it's pining for the fjords."
The joke book has been published in English and will appeal to all of us who swear that the old ones are the best - this could well be a "top 10" Christmas present. The jokes, so we are informed, are all about sex, dimwits, nagging wives and flatulence - obviously these subjects have been making us laugh since the dawn of time.
My husband's old football team in Bristol always had a number of students and were referred to as the "dolt student family" and they were always the butt of the joke. This was obviously not an original idea as many of the jokes feature a slow-witted boy known as the "student dunce" who is the one made fun of. In one, the boy goes to the city as a friend has asked him to buy two 15-year-old slaves: "No problem,' he responds. "If I don't find two 15-year-olds, I'll get one 30-year-old.'
Evidently the original book is attributed to Hierocles and Philagrius. Very little is known about them but it is amazing to note that they are still appreciated today as comedian Jim Bowen is reviving their lines in front of a 21-century audience.
Jim said "One or two of them are jokes I've seen in peoples' acts recently, slightly updated: they put in a motor car instead of a chariot."
There's nothing like the good old days!
For those who believe the ancient Greeks came up with most things first, proof has been found in a 4th century AD joke book that they were right! Obviously written by a relative of the Monty Python crowd the Dead Parrot sketch, where a man returns a parrot to a shop complaining it is dead, was originally written about a slave.
The 1,600 year-old joke book "Philogelos: The Laugh Addict," is one of the world's oldest joke books - it features the gag where a man complains that a slave he has only recently bought has died. "By the gods," replies the slave seller, "when he was with me, he never did any such thing!"
Is this the root of one of the funniest ever Monty Python sketches - "The Dead Parrot"? which contains the immortal and hysterical lines "It's not dead, it's pining for the fjords."
The joke book has been published in English and will appeal to all of us who swear that the old ones are the best - this could well be a "top 10" Christmas present. The jokes, so we are informed, are all about sex, dimwits, nagging wives and flatulence - obviously these subjects have been making us laugh since the dawn of time.
My husband's old football team in Bristol always had a number of students and were referred to as the "dolt student family" and they were always the butt of the joke. This was obviously not an original idea as many of the jokes feature a slow-witted boy known as the "student dunce" who is the one made fun of. In one, the boy goes to the city as a friend has asked him to buy two 15-year-old slaves: "No problem,' he responds. "If I don't find two 15-year-olds, I'll get one 30-year-old.'
Evidently the original book is attributed to Hierocles and Philagrius. Very little is known about them but it is amazing to note that they are still appreciated today as comedian Jim Bowen is reviving their lines in front of a 21-century audience.
Jim said "One or two of them are jokes I've seen in peoples' acts recently, slightly updated: they put in a motor car instead of a chariot."
There's nothing like the good old days!
posted by Brooks-Partners at
13:13
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