To be honest I couldnāt find much out when I decided to research early one liners. It's true maxims - pithy sayings - have a long history but they aren't usuallyĀ jokes. I managed to find this 1869 example from Mark Twain, and I think it squeaks in as a one-liner in the modern sense.
āI must have a prodigious quantity of mind; it takes me as much as a week to make it up.ā
A little modernisation and Tim Vine could adopt that.
Mark Twain was famous for witticisms. Hereās a rather misanthropic one I came across, but it made me laugh.
āTo create man was a fine and original idea but to add the sheep was a tautology.ā
He didnāt care for President Theodore Roosevelt (eponym of the Teddy Bear) either. Listen to this.
āMr. Roosevelt is the mostĀ formidableĀ disasterĀ that has befallen the country since the Civil War ā but the vast mass of the nation loves him, is frantically fond of him, even idolizes him. This is the simple truth. It sounds like a libel upon the intelligence of the human race, but it isnāt; there isnāt any way to libel the intelligence of the human race.ā (September 13, 1907)ā.
Ooh.