Dead Parrot sketch is 1,600 years old By Stephen Adams

[Demeter]

It's long been held that the old jokes are the best jokes - and Monty Python's Dead Parrot sketch is no different. Monty Python's 'Dead Parrot sketch' - which featured John Cleese (pictured) - is some 1,600 years old...A classic scholar has proved the point, by unearthing a Greek version of the world-famous piece that is some 1,600 years old.

A comedy duo called Hierocles and Philagrius told the original version, only rather than a parrot they used a slave.

It concerns a man who complains to his friend that he was sold a slave who dies in his service.

His companion replies: "When he was with me, he never did any such thing!"

The joke was discovered in a collection of 265 jokes called Philogelos: The Laugh Addict, which dates from the fourth century AD.

Hierocles had gone to meet his maker, and Philagrius had certainly ceased to be, long before John Cleese and Michael Palin reinvented the yarn in 1969.

The manuscripts from the Greek joke book have now been published in an online book, featuring former Bullseye presenter and comic Jim Bowen presenting them to a modern audience.

Mr Bowen said: "One or two of them are jokes I've seen in people's acts nowadays, slightly updated.

"They put in a motor car instead of a chariot - some of them are Tommy Cooper-esque."

Jokes about wives, it seems, have always been fair game.

One joke goes: "A man tells a well-known wit: 'I had your wife, without paying a penny'. The husband replies: "It's my duty as a husband to couple with such a monstrosity. What made you do it?"

The book was translated by William Berg, an American classics professor.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/3454319/Dead-Parrot-sketch-is-1600-years-old.html

[Eric J in MN]

1. Two different jokes.

Old Greek joke: A man wishes his former slave had died sooner (wishing death)

Monty Python skit: A man complains that the parrot he recently bought is dead (wishing life)

[progdonkey]

3. sorry, but you obviously misunderstood the old joke...

The punchline "When he worked for me he did no such thing!" is not regretting that the slave hadn't died in his service, but assuring his friend that he sold him a perfectly good slave. The joke is that death is of course a one time thing, so it couldn't have been a repetitive transgression.

"My new slave keeps stealing from me." Response: "When he was with me he did no such thing!"

"My new slave keeps being dead." Response: "When he was with me he did no such thing!" (You see the irony and absurdity, right?)

[Eric J in MN]

5. I found the text.

http://publishing.yudu.com/Library/Au7bv/PhilogelosTheLaughAd/resources/index.htm?referrerUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fbeta.yudu.com%2Flibrary%2Fitem_details%2F19544%2FPhilogelos--The-Laugh-Addict---The-World-s-Oldest-Joke-Book

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A man goes up to a student dunce and says, 'The slave you sold me died.' 'By the Gods,' counters the dunce, 'when he was with me, he never did any such thing!'


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[progdonkey]

6. and...?

You found the text, so now you get the joke, or you found the text, but still don't get the joke?

I just want to be sure, since that quote says exactly what I said. :shrug:

[Eric J in MN]

8. I now agree with you about "one time thing"

...being part of the joke.

However, in the Monty Python sketch, the seller insists the parrot isn't dead probably because he doesn't want to pay a refund.

In the old Greek joke, the seller is introduced as a "dunce," and the point seems to be that he's too dumb to understand that dying is a "one time thing," not that he's trying to talk his way out of paying a refund.

So I still consider these two different jokes.

[panader0]

2. There are only three or four basic jokes

After that you just change the scenario a bit.

[Tesha]

9. A Trojan, a Thracian, and Phoenician walk into a bar... (NT)

[mr_hat]

4. I'll bet nobody on DU had the pleasure of watching

Tommy Cooper in his prime.

Zloike 'at, see?

[annabanana]

7. one of his famous:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHYnahPkJI8

alas, I also found the youTube of his heart attack (live, onstage)..

He was something else.