canny granny

Stop me if you’ve heard this

1600 years ago a man goes up to a slave trader and complains

“The slave you sold me died.”

The trader replies: “Did he? By the gods, when he was with me he never did such a thing!”

40 years ago a man goes up to a petshop owner and complains

“The parrot you sold me died.”

The petshop owner replies : “Did he? By god, when he was with me he never did such a thing!”

It’s impossible for you to have heard the joke the first time around when Hierocles and Philagrius strutted their stuff on the Greek stage around the year 400, but it could be possible for you to have seen Monty Python’s parrot sketch in 1969.

US classics professor William Berg has translated 260 old jokes in Philogelos: The Laugh Addict.

Another old joke starts: “A man walks into a bar . . .