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Plankowner
Posts: 9165
Location: Upper lefthand corner of the map. | Subject: There ain't nuttin' new....
Ancient Greeks pre-empted Dead Parrot sketch
By Daniel Flynn
ATHENS (Reuters) - "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 thought of everything first, proof has been found in a 4th century AD joke book featuring an ancestor of Monty Python's Dead Parrot sketch where a man returns a parrot to a shop, complaining it is dead.
The 1,600-year-old work entitled "Philogelos: The Laugh Addict," one of the world's oldest joke books, features a joke in which a man complains that a slave he has just bought has died, its publisher said on Friday.
"By the gods," answers the slave's seller, "when he was with me, he never did any such thing!"
In a British comedy act Monty Python's Flying Circus sketch, first aired in 1969 and regularly voted one of the funniest ever, the pet-shop owner says the parrot, a "Norwegian Blue," is not dead, just "resting" or "pining for the fjords."
The English-language book will appeal to those who swear that the old jokes are the best ones. Many of its 265 gags will seem strikingly familiar, suggesting that sex, dimwits, nagging wives and flatulence have raised laughs for centuries.
FAR-FETCHED CLOAK
In many of the jokes, a slow-witted figure known as the "student dunce" is the butt of the jokes. In one, the student dunce goes to the city and a friend asks him to buy two 15-year-old slaves: "No problem,' responds the dunce. "If I don't find two 15-year-olds, I'll get one 30-year-old.'
In another, someone asks to borrow the student's cloak to go down to the country. "I have a cloak to go down to your ankle, but I don't have one that reaches to the country," he replies.
The manuscript is attributed to a pair of ancient comedians called Hierocles and Philagrius. Little is known about them except that they were most likely the compilers of the jokes, not the original writers.
The multi-media e-book, which can be purchased online (www.yudu.com/oldestjokebook), features veteran British comedian Jim Bowen, 71, reviving the lines before a 21-century audience.
"Jim Bowen brings them back from the dead. It's like Jurassic Park for jokes," Richard Stephenson, CEO of digital publisher YUDU, said in a statement.
For Bowen, much of the material seemed very familiar: "One or two of them are jokes I've seen in peoples' acts nowadays, slightly updated: they put in a motor car instead of a chariot."
Other one-liners in Philogelos may baffle a modern audience, such as a series of jokes about a lettuce, which only make sense in light of the ancient belief it was an aphrodisiac.
(editing by Peter Millership)
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COMSUBBBS
Posts: 3669
Location: Kansas City Missouri | Subject: RE: There ain't nuttin' new....
A new limerick.. There once was a man from Nantucket.. |
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Admin
Posts: 2297
Location: Renton, WA | Subject: RE: There ain't nuttin' new....
One of might favorites was told to me by my, then, 79 yr. old boss, an ex-maritime sailor and Swede: There once was a women named Danker Who slept down below while at anchor She awoke with dismay When she heard the mate say "Haul down the top sheets and Spanker" |
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Old Salt
Posts: 489
Location: San Freakcisco CA area | Subject: RE: There ain't nuttin' new....
>>>"Haul down the top sheets and Spanker"
I hope you haven't given up your day job ...  |
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Old Salt
Posts: 403
Location: Sacramento/Twain Harte | Subject: RE: There ain't nuttin' new....
There was a young man from Lagal whose thing was excedingly small
he buggered a bug on the edge of the rug and the bug didn't know it at all
Got a book full of these. |
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Senior Crew
Posts: 131
Location: Communist Humboldt County | Subject: RE: There ain't nuttin' new....
OK I gotta contribute my one and only joke that I can ever remember, why I don't have a clue. . .
You know why blind people don't sky dive? . . .. (drum roll) it scare's the hell outta the dog!
Guess you're lucky thats the only joke I can ever remember huh?
PEP |
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Master and Commander
Posts: 1107
Location: Tucson AZ | Subject: RE: There ain't nuttin' new....
PEP - 2008-11-16 1:31 PMOK I gotta contribute my one and only joke that I can ever remember, why I don't have a clue. . . You know why blind people don't sky dive? . . .. (drum roll) it scare's the hell outta the dog! Guess you're lucky that's the only joke I can ever remember huh?PEP
Indeed, PEP, we are lucky .... not so much because of your joke (hey, I laughed), but because we're all on the 'correct side of the sod', as my Irish great grandpa would have put it.
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There ain't nuttin' new....
