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I first heard this some 30+ years ago, (maybe even nearer 40?) when the then Labour government, in an attempt to reduce the 'visible' unemployment figures, created something known as TOPS (forget what it stood for) and sent everyone who had been unemployed for over 6 months on a course (Irony was that I had a good job at a local Rose Hybridist's until Labour introduced 'cost of living rises and created vast numbers of unemployed because small businesses could no longer afford their wages - ho-hum). Anyway, despite the fact that at the time had been employed as a Secretary/PA the local Job Centre insisted on sending me to the local college for 'retraining' as - wait for it - a secretary?? Anyway on the last day our English tutor played this for us, and by the finish most of us were on the floor crying and in pain.
Being a bricklayer myself I remember being told this tale from my night school days and yes, it was for me as funny now as it was then, a salutory tale if ever there was one...