Ancient gags show nothing's changed | World News | News.com.au

Ancient gags show nothing's changed | World News | News.com.au: "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 Addict contains 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!'.""