A direct ancestor of Monty Python's renowned "Dead Parrot" sketch has been found in a book of jokes dating back to Greece in the fourth century AD, a publisher says.

A new English translation of Philogelos: The Laugh Addict contains a joke in which a man complains that a slave he has just bought has died.

"By the gods," answers the slave's seller, "when he was with me, he never did any such thing."

In the Python sketch, written 16 centuries later, the shopkeeper claims the parrot, a Norwegian Blue, is not dead but just "pining for the fjords."

Other jokes in the book show that sex, nagging wives and passing wind have formed the basis of humour for centuries.

One example is: "A misogynist is attending to the burial of his wife, who has just died. When someone asks, 'Who is it who rests in peace here?' He answers, 'Me, now that I'm rid of her!'."

The 265 jokes in Philogelos are attributed to a pair of jokers called Hierocles and Philagrius.

Little is known about them, except that they were more likely to have been the compilers of the jokes rather than the original writers of the gags.

The jokes have been published in a multimedia online book, which includes video of veteran British comedian Jim Bowen performing the jokes for a 21st century audience.

Bowen said: "One or two of them are jokes I've seen in people's acts nowadays, slightly updated. They put in a motor car instead of a chariot."

The translator of the book, William Berg - a US professor of classics - said the Philogelos book was already a later version of jokes first aired in the fourth century.

"The text of Philogelos comes to us from several manuscripts ranging from the 11th to the 15th centuries," Professor Berg said.

"All of them trace back to an earlier original, probably - judging from the content and language - from the fourth century."

- AFP