A piece of popular wisdom (if there ever was such a thing) is held to be that the old jokes are the best.  Now a classic scholar has seemingly proved the point with the discovery of an ancient Greek version of the world famous "Dead Parrot sketch" featured on the classic Monty Python show.

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!"

Telegraph [via Slashdot]