Monty Python's dead Parrot sketch dates back to 4th century

London, Nov 14 : Monty Python's famous Dead Parrot sketch is actually a lot older than it is believed - it dates back to Greece in the 4th century.

According to historians, the famous Dead Parrot sketch was written 1,600 years ago in Ancient Greece.

Scholars say it is in the world's oldest joke book - entitled Philogelos, or The Lover of Laughter.

In the fourth-century gag, a man goes up to a slave trader and moans: "The slave you sold me died."

He was entitled to damages, under the law then, reports BBC.

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

Attributed to John Cleese and Graham Chapman, in the Python version, an irate customer played by Cleese returns to a pet shop to complain about a "deceased" parrot he bought from the owner (Michael Palin).

The gag appeared on cult TV comedy Monty Python's Flying Circus in 1969. Its predecessor is one of 260 jokes in the collection, attributed to a pair named Hierocles and Philagrius.

They have been translated by US classics professor William Berg. Other old favourites include: "A man walks into a bar . . . ".

ANI