What’s old is new again…
Readers may recall earlier missives (c.f. here and here) on Philogelos, the ancient Greek joke book. (See this New Yorker piece for an account of Philogelos in the context of “joke history.”)
Lest we think that’s there’s anything new under the sun, Slashdot, citing a (London) Telegraph story, reports that:
Monty Python’s [1969] “Dead Parrot sketch,” which featured John Cleese ‚ is some 1,600 years old. A classic scholar has proved the point, by unearthing a Greek version of the world-famous piece. 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.
The full text of the classic Monty Python routine is here; the video, here.
As we tussle with our titters, we might send birthday wishes to Alan Young, who was for 6 seasons (144 episodes) the conversational partner of that most eloquent equine, Mr. Ed. (Less well known is that Young also voiced Scrooge McDuck for several years…) Young was born on this date in 1919.
Alan Young, with co-star Mr. Ed (Young on right)
Still basking in post-election glow, reader PL sends along this terrific spread from ArtDaily…