A very small disappointment

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So I'm re-reading In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson, which is full of stories of his travels around Australia. And I came across the following line in it, which I had forgotten from my original reading of the book: "We wanted proper outback: a place where men were men and sheep were nervous."

Reading that made me laugh aloud, and since I couldn't recall seeing it before, I assumed it was an original joke. Well, something led me to do a Google search for "men were men and sheep were nervous" and that revealed the line is by no means original to Bryson. Which disappointed me a little, but then I reflected a writer certainly has a right to use old jokes if they work in context, and this one certainly does.

At any rate, it's a marvelous book with many wonderful stories about Australia and it's people. Very highly recommended!