Philogelos Reveals Origin of Ancient Jokes
Ancestor of Monty Python's "Dead Parrot" Sketch Found
A direct ancestor of Monty Python's "Dead Parrot" sketch has been unearthed in a joke book dating from 4th Century Greece. A new English translation of Philogelos: The Laugh Addict contains a joke in which a man complains the slave he has just bought has died.
"By the gods", answers the slave trader, "when he was with me, he never did any such thing."
In Monty Python's "Dead Parrot" sketch, written 16 centuries later, a pet-shop owner makes similar excuses when a customer complains that the parrot he has just bought from the shop has died. The salesman suggests that the parrot, a Norwegian blue, is "pining for the fjords".
The World’s Oldest Joke Book
Philogelos, hailed as the world's oldest joke book, is not a recent discovery, but is gaining renewed interest as the world's first online multi-media joke book. The digital edition, published by YUDU Media, offers not only a new translation from the Greek by Professor William Berg, but a video of comedian Jim Bowen performing the ancient jokes at a London comedy club.
"This book is a small step for old jokes but a giant leap for joke books as a genre", says Richard Stephenson, CEO of YUDU. "It might contain some of the oldest - and worst - jokes of all time; ones that would fall flat in a traditional joke-book where all you could do was read them. But with the help of video, and his own talent, Jim Bowen brings them back from the dead. It's like Jurassic Park for jokes."
Lover of Laughter
Translator William Berg, a former Classics professor at both Stanford and UCLA universities, reveals that the text of Philogelos comes from several manuscripts ranging from the eleventh to the fifteenth centuries. All of them hale back to an earlier original, most likely from the 4th Century C.E.
The various versions all agree that the title Philogelos, which literally means "lover of laughter," is obviously meant as a parody of other, more serious philo-compounds like philosophos ("lover of wisdom").
Most jokes in the collection belong to the age of Constantine, when ancient Greek civilization was still in full swing, but it includes some from an earlier era, and undoubtedly amassed a few extra jokes as the centuries rolled by. It is believed that other joke books existed from the classical period onward, though Philogelos is the only joke book to survive from ancient times.
Hierocles and Philagrius
The 265 jokes are attributed to Hierocles and Philagrius. No one knows who they were. They may have been a double act or have lived generations apart. More than likely, they were the compilers of the jokes, rather than the original gag-writers.
As in today’s comedy, many of the jokes in Philogelos depend on the stupidity of the main character. While often portrayed as members of a particular ethnic group -- Kymean, Abderite, etc -- the most frequent victim is what the translation calls "a student dunce". “A student dunce is shipwrecked in a storm. When he sees each of his fellow passengers holding onto items on board in order to save themselves, he himself holds onto one of the anchors.”
YUDU Media is a multiple award-winning digital publisher of online and multi-media brochures, catalogues, magazines and newspapers. Philogelos: The laugh Addict is available for download for 5.95 pounds sterling (about $9.13 USD), but those curious may preview a free highlights version at YUDU.com.
Philogelos: The Laugh Addict
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Jim Bowen Performs Jokes from Philogelos
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