Dead Parrot Skit Circa 400AD

[MalahatTwo7]

EHEHEHEHEEHEHEHEEEEE no matter how old it is, this is still funny.

Dead parrot precursor live in ancient Greece

Daniel Flynn, Reuters Published: Monday, November 17, 2008

ATHENS -- "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 features a joke in which a man complains that a slave he has just bought has died, its publisher said. "By the gods," answers the slave's seller, "when he was with me, he never did any such thing!"

In the 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."

Many of the book's 265 gags will seem strikingly familiar, suggesting that sex, dimwits, nagging wives and flatulence have raised laughs for centuries.

In one joke, a 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.'

The manuscript is attributed to a pair of ancient comedians called Hierocles and Philagrius. 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 21st century audience.

© Times Colonist (Victoria) 2008