Thursday 22 April 2021

My absolutely favourite joke

 


Hullo Old Boy!

Oh, hello. 

What's up?

I was clearing out the attic last week and I found an oil painting and an old violin; so I just took them along to Sotheby's to get them valued.

Yes?...

They were a Rembrandt and a Stradivarius.

But that's marvelous!

Well... It turns-out that Rembrandt made terrible violins and Stradivarius was a lousy painter.


... (Collapse of stout party)...

4 comments:

Wm Jas Tychonievich said...

I'd invited a bunch of my friends over, and we were all drinking Guinness, when suddenly my parents came home and...

collapse of stout party!

Bruce Charlton said...

@Wm - It seems that the phrase, rather than being ubiquitous in the 19th century, as claimed - is probably a piece of modern pseudo-Victorianism:

https://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-col5.htm

Wm Jas Tychonievich said...

Actually, if you think about it, a terrible Rembrandt violin and a lousy Stradivarius painting would both be worth a lot of money. I’m sure anything made or owned by a great man would be worth money, regardless of its merit.

Bruce Charlton said...

@Wm -

First: This was in Edwardian times, before the prices of random memorabilia became so inflated, and

Secondly - Rembrandt made *really* terrible violins and Stradivarius was an *absolutely* lousy painter.