Jim, since I know from other threads you like tracing things back to "original versions" (hah!), it may be of interest to know that a variant of that situation occurs at the beginning of the famous Glasgow book, "No Mean City". It's not a joke, either (not many laughs in the Gorbals). A third variant was the way I heard it, a man complaining that his wife was lazy &c.; "and there's always dishes in the sink when I go furra p-sh".

The way that jokes &c. re-appear, often with slight changes, would be an interesting "minor key" accompaniment to discussions about what I've heard called "parallel versions" of songs (whether or no they were noted down by Child or anyone).Good Luck.