Jokes

In the 1880s, the North Wales Express, an English language newspaper for North Wales, UK, had a regular column called Varieties, full of excruciating puns and jokes that have not generally translated well for the present day. It is interesting to note their joke at the expense of Food for Thinking Christians in the issue for November 25, 1881, page 6.

The “joke” may have appeared first in the American humor magazine Puck for August 31, 1881, and then was repeated (with variations) in many other papers. However, for it to appear in a November British newspaper, and a Welsh newspaper at that, provides one key point of interest. For it to make any real sense to readers they would need to have heard of the publication's extensive distribution in the UK.