subs. phr. (common).—A stale joke; a dull tale; a CHESTNUT (q.v.). [From a collection entitled Joe Miller’s Jest book published circa 1750, the term having been used to pass off not only the original stock but thousands of jokes manufactured long after.] Hence JOE-MILLERISM (subs.) and JOE-MILLERIZE (verb.).
1789. G. PARKER, Life’s Painter, 96. The Narrator should not laugh immoderately, and what he delivers, should not be found in every common jest book, or a JOE MILLER, page 14.
1850. F. E. SMEDLEY, Frank Fairlegh, liv. ‘Well, of all the vile puns I ever heard, that, which I believe to be an old JOE MILLER, is the worst.’
1859. Times, ‘Rev. of Ramsay’s Reminiscences,’ 25 Oct. There is more ‘wit,’ more mere word-flashing in one page of our familiar JOE, than in the whole of Dean Ramsay’s book.
1883. Notes and Queries, 6 S. viii. 489. All classes are given to such repetitions, and the only differences are that every set has its own peculiar style or class of ‘JOE MILLERS’ and old tales.
1885. Punch, 1 Aug., p. 54.
| What? A weir yonder? Oh! I’m a-weir of it. | |
| There! Better old JOE MILLERS than old saws. |
1890. Speaker, 22 Feb., p. 211, col. 2. We must not spoil any of Mr. Montagu Williams’s endless laughable stories, though here and there one looks very like an old JOE with a new face.
