Lending New Meaning to the Phrase "Old Joke"

[fauxklore]

Apparently, an ancient (4th century C.E.) Greek joke book has been found and was recently translated into English under the title Philogelas: The Laugh Addict.

One of the 265 jokes in the book has to do with a man complaining that the slave he bought had just died. The seller says, "When he was with me, he never did any such thing!"

As the BBC pointed out, this is eerily similar to Monty Python's "Dead Parrot" sketch.

Here's more of a sample, performed by Jim Bowen

Comments

[slymongoose.livejournal.com]

Ha! That *is* an old one.

It reminds me of the joke memo that all dead employees are required to fall over so as not to be confused with live staff. It had other things the dead must do, mostly involving forms, of course.