[BITList] Ancient gags shows nothing has changed.

[John Feltham]

A DIRECT ancestor of Monty Python's renowned "Dead Parrot" sketch has  
been found in a book of jokes dating back to Greece in the fourth  
century AD.

A new English translation of Philogelos: The Laugh Addictcontains a  
joke in which a man complains that a slave he has just bought has died.

"By the gods," answers the slave's seller, "when he was with me, he  
never did any such thing."

In the Python sketch, written 16 centuries later, the shopkeeper  
claims the parrot, a "Norwegian Blue," is not dead, but just "pining  
for the fjords."

Other jokes in the book show that sex, nagging wives and passing wind  
have formed the basis of humour for centuries.

One example is: "A misogynist is attending to the burial of his wife,  
who has just died. When someone asks, 'Who is it who rests in peace  
here?', he answers, 'Me, now that I'm rid of her!'."

The 265 jokes in Philogelos are attributed to a pair of jokers called  
Hierocles and Philagrius. Little is known about them, except that they  
were more likely to have been the compilers of the jokes than the  
original writers of the gags.

The jokes have been published in a multimedia online book, which  
includes video of veteran British comedian Jim Bowen performing the  
jokes for a 21st century audience.

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."

The translator of the book, William Berg, a US professor of classics,  
said the Philogelos book was already a later version of jokes first  
aired in the fourth century.

"The text of Philogelos comes to us from several manuscripts ranging  
from the 11th to the 15th centuries," Mr Berg said.

"All of them trace back to an earlier original, probably - judging  
from the content and language - from the fourth century."

See also.....


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ0RB38fUeU



ooroo

If you don't hear the knock of opportunity - build a door.

Anon.