An incredibly historic discovery has shown a comedy sketch dating back to 540 years ago with gags that "echoed Mock the Week".
Writings which show the potential first-ever stand-up comedy sketch may have been performed during the War of the Roses as scholars stumbled onto a cleric's notes of a comedy show.
Richard Heege had written down the jokes he heard at a minstrel's live show way back in 1480, and the unearthed parchments showed off some comedic plays used to this day.
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The cleric's texts show the first-ever "red herring" comic diversion in what was described as a "bizarre" build between three kings who eat so many oxen they burst from their stomachs.
Dr James Wade, in explaining the joke, said: "The images are bizarre, but the minstrel must have known people would get this red herring reference.
"Kings are reduced to mere distractions. What are kings good for? Gluttony. And what is the result of gluttony? Absurd pageantry creating distractions, 'red herrings'."
The build of the joke was compared to Mock the Week, the stand-up comedy and panel show featuring Hugh Dennis and Dara Ó Briain, which was cancelled late last year.
Dr Wade added: "You can find echoes of this minstrel's humour in shows like Mock the Week, situational comedies and slapstick. The self-irony and making audiences the butt of the joke are still very characteristic of British stand-up comedy."
Slapstick entertainment was also evidenced in the texts and drew comparisons to Monty Python's infamous Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog sketch from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
The Cambridge English Faculty alumni said of a killer rabbit-featuring part of the text: "Manuscripts often preserve relics of high art. This is something else.
"It's mad and offensive, but just as valuable. Stand-up comedy has always involved taking risks and these texts are risky. They poke fun at everyone, high and low."
Dr Wade concluded the writings were proof of higher art in stand-up comedy throughout history, adding: "We shouldn't assume that popular entertainers weren't capable of poetic achievement. This minstrel clearly was."
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