Joseph Miller (1684 – 15 August 1738) was an English actor, who first appeared in the cast of Sir Robert Howard's ''Committee'' at

Drury Lane Drury Lane is a street on the boundary between the Covent Garden and Holborn areas of London, running between Aldwych and High Holborn. The northern part is in the borough of London Borough of Camden, Camden and the southern part in the City o ...

in 1709 as Teague. Trinculo in ''

The Tempest ''The Tempest'' is a Shakespeare's plays, play by William Shakespeare, probably written in 1610–1611, and thought to be one of the last plays that he wrote alone. After the first scene, which takes place on a ship at sea during a tempest, th ...

'', the First Grave-digger in ''

Hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

'' and Marplot in

Susanna Centlivre Susanna Centlivre (c. 1669 (baptised) – 1 December 1723), born Susanna Freeman, and also known professionally as Susanna Carroll, was an English poet, actress, and "the most successful female playwright of the eighteenth century". Centlivre's ...

's ''The Busybody'', were among his many favourite parts. He is said to have been a friend of Hogarth. In 1715 he appeared on bills promoting a performance on the last day of April, where he played Young Clincher in Farquhar's comedy, ''

The Constant Couple ''The Constant Couple'' is a 1699 play by the Irish writer George Farquhar. It is part of the Restoration comedy tradition, and is often described as a sentimental comedy. It marked the first major success of Farquhar's career. A series of comi ...

''. On 25 April 1717 he played Sir Joseph Whittol in

William Congreve William Congreve (24 January 1670 – 19 January 1729) was an English playwright, satirist, poet, and Whig politician. He spent most of his career between London and Dublin, and was noted for his highly polished style of writing, being regard ...

's "Old Batchelor". Tickets for this performance were adorned by a design by William Hogarth showing the scene where Whittol's friend Captain Bluffe is kicked by Sharper while his friend Bellmour tries to pull him away. This is described as a "very valuable engraving" in 1868. This ticket design was used for Joe Millers benefit performance on 13 April 1738. In "vacation periods" between working at Drury Lane, he performed for

William Pinkethman William Pinkethman (also Penkethman, Pinkeman, Pinkerman, etc.; nicknamed Pinkey, c.1660–1725) was an English comic actor, a low comedian with a droll style, and theatre manager. He was considered an imitator of Anthony Leigh. Starting in th ...

's company. He frequented the "Black Jack" tavern on Portsmouth Street in London, which was a favourite of the Drury Lane players and those from

Lincoln's Inn Fields Lincoln's Inn Fields is located in Holborn and is the List of city squares by size, largest public square in London. It was laid out in the 1630s under the initiative of the speculative builder and contractor William Newton, "the first in a ...

. Allegedly he was very serious in the bar and this led to an in-joke whereby all his companions ascribed all new jokes to him. His final performance was on 13 April 1738. On his death on 15 August he was buried at

St Clement Danes St Clement Danes is an Anglican church in the City of Westminster, London. It is now situated near the 19th-century Royal Courts of Justice on the Strand in Aldwych. Although the first church on the site was reputedly founded in the 9th cent ...

on Portugal Street, London. This churchyard was later built over by

King's College Hospital King's College Hospital is a major teaching hospital and major trauma centre in Denmark Hill, Camberwell in the London Borough of Lambeth, referred to locally and by staff simply as "King's" or abbreviated internally to "KCH". It is managed by ...

. The grave is therefore lost.

''Joe Miller's Jests''

After Miller's death,

John Mottley John Mottley (1692–1750) was an English writer, known as a dramatist, biographer, and compiler of jokes. Life He was the son of Colonel Thomas Mottley, a Jacobitism, Jacobite adherent of James II in his exile, who entered the service of Louis ...

(1692–1750) brought out a book called ''Joe Miller's Jests, or the Wits Vade-Mecum'' (1739), published under the pseudonym of Elijah Jenkins Esq. at the price of one shilling. This was a collection of contemporary and ancient coarse witticisms, only three of which are told of Miller. This first edition was a thin pamphlet of 247 numbered jokes. This ran to three editions in its first year. Later (not wholly connected) versions were entitled with names such as "Joe Miller's Joke Book", and "The New Joe Miller" to latch onto the popularity of both Joe Miller himself and the popularity of Mottley's first book. Joke books of this format (i.e. "Mr Smith's Jests") were common even before this date. It was common practice to learn one or two jokes for use at parties etc. Owing to the low quality of the jokes in Mottley's book, their number increasing with each of the many subsequent editions, any time-worn jest came to be called "a Joe Miller", a Joe-Millerism, or simply a Millerism. Joke 99 states: Joke 234 speaks of:

Other references to Miller

Joe Miller was referred to in

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and Social criticism, social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by ...

' ''

A Christmas Carol ''A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas'', commonly known as ''A Christmas Carol'', is a novella by Charles Dickens, first published in London by Chapman & Hall in 1843 and illustrated by John Leech. It recounts the ...

'' (1843), by the character Scrooge, who remarks "Joe Miller never made such a joke as sending he turkeyto Bob's will be!" Dickens also references Joe-Millerism in ''

Sketches by Boz Sketch or Sketches may refer to: * Sketch (drawing), a rapidly executed freehand drawing that is not usually intended as a finished work Arts, entertainment and media * Sketch comedy, a series of short scenes or vignettes called sketches Fil ...

'', in chapter 1 of ''The Boarding-house''.

George Grossmith George Grossmith (9 December 1847 – 1 March 1912) was an English comedian, writer, composer, actor, and singer. His performing career spanned more than four decades. As a writer and composer, he created 18 comic operas, nearly 100 musical ...

and

Weedon Grossmith Walter Weedon Grossmith (9 June 1854 – 14 June 1919), better known as Weedon Grossmith, was an English writer, actor, painter and playwright best known as co-author of ''The Diary of a Nobody'' (1892) with his brother, music hall comedian ...

's 1892 comic novel, ''

The Diary of a Nobody ''The Diary of a Nobody'' is an 1892 English comic novel written by the brothers George and Weedon Grossmith, with illustrations by the latter. It originated as an intermittent serial in '' Punch'' magazine in 1888–89 and first appeared in ...

'' also makes reference to Joe Miller when Lupin, son of the chief protagonist and diary writer, Mr. Pooter, sarcastically states, "Bravo Joe Miller" in response to one of Mr. Pooter's failed jokes. Joe Miller was also referred to in

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...

's "

Ulysses Ulysses is the Latin name for Odysseus, a legendary Greek hero recognized for his intelligence and cunning. He is famous for his long, adventurous journey home to Ithaca after the Trojan War, as narrated in Homer's Odyssey. Ulysses may also refer ...

" (1922) in the limerick that Lenehan whispers during the Aeolus episode to

Stephen Dedalus Stephen Dedalus is James Joyce's literary alter ego, appearing as the protagonist and antihero of his first, semi-autobiographic novel of artistic existence, ''A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man'' (1916), and as a major character in his 19 ...

, the last line of which is "I can't see the Joe Miller. Can you?". Isaac Asimov refers to Joe Miller's joke book on page 552 of ''Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare''. The work is used in his explanation of Beatrice's barb toward Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing—Act II, scene i, lines 128–130. According to Leonard Feinberg, the 1734 edition contains one of the oldest examples of

gallows humor Black comedy, also known as black humor, bleak comedy, dark comedy, dark humor, gallows humor or morbid humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally ...

. In the 1940

short film A short film is a film with a low running time. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of not more than 40 minutes including all credits". Other film o ...

, ''One for the Book'', in which characters emerge from famous books, one of the characters is Joe Miller, emerging from his joke book. The 1948

Merrie Melodies ''Merrie Melodies'' is an American animated comedy short film series distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It was part of the ''Looney Tunes'' franchise and featured many of the same characters. Originally running from August 2, 1931, to Septem ...

cartoon Daffy Dilly, the character

Daffy Duck Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon character created by animators Tex Avery and Bob Clampett for Leon Schlesinger Productions. Styled as an anthropomorphic black duck, he has appeared in cartoon series such as ''Looney Tunes'' and '' Merrie Me ...

works as a street vendor selling, among other items, copies of a Joe Miller joke book.

References

;Sources * *

External links

* * * * Peter Young, ''The Data Book of Joe Miller Jokes'', . * ''Joe Miller's Jests or the Wits Vade-Mecum.'' A facsimile of the original "Joe Miller" (1739). Dover Books, 1963.
Online version of ''Joe Miller's Jests''
(sans introductory material copyrighted by Dover Books)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Miller, Joe 1684 births 1738 deaths English male stage actors 18th-century English male actors