[In 1739, a London publisher released Joe Miller's Jest, a book of jokes supposedly containing jokes by and stories about Joe Miller, a popular comic who had died the year before. The book was actually written by a hack writer named John Mottley. The book became wildly popular, and went through many printings and changes; over a century later, the book contained nearly 1300 jokes. By this time, a truly bad joke was commonly referred to as a "Joe Miller." Most of the original jokes do not translate very well in the 21st Century. Ah, well...]
Joe Miller sitting one Day in the Window at the Sun-Tavern in Clare-Street,
a Fish-Woman and her Maid passing by, the Woman cry'd, Buy my Soals, buy
my Maids: Ah, you wicked old Creature, cry'd honest Joe, What are you not
content to sell your own Soul, but must you sell your Maid's too?
[Old Joe, he was a laugh a minute, he was.]
No comments:
Post a Comment