Brace yourselves for a SHOCKING revelation! The term "curate's egg" - meaning something that is partly bad, but also partly good - is typically thought to originate from a Punch cartoon by George du Maurier. But... [/1] George du Maurier's cartoon was published in Punch on 9 November 1895. Here's a joke published in Pearson's Weekly nearly five months earlier, on the 19 June 1895. [/2]

In 1875 a man named George Vasey published a book on 'The Philosophy of Laughter and Smiling.' He mounted a whole-hearted assault on the moral and physiological evils of laughter, but was more complimentary about smiling.
Full Text: archive.org/details/philos…
#NationalSmileDay The first two pages of Chapter XV provide a good insight into George Vasey's thoughts about laughter..
archive.org/stream/philoso…
#NationalSmileDay

I’m particularly fond of the sub-genre of Victorian jokes in which women rebuff the unwanted advances of amorous male suitors. They’re often rather savage!
- Tit-Bits (31 Dec 1892) Here’s another one. The set-up is longer, but the punchline is far more brutal!
- Tit-Bits (1892)