This is a bit obscure, but it was published at the height of bacteriologist Paul Ehrlich’s fame in 1910, when he was offering a cure for syphilis (“606”), and it seems to poke fun at the insularity of the academic appointment process. (It cannot have been coincidental that Ehrlich was Jewish. Though a disproportionately high percentage of physicians in Hungary were Jewish, access to university teaching positions remained limited.)
Professor Ehrlich: “Honorable colleagues & sons, if I do not offend you: I would respectfully like to request a small academic chair at the University of Budapest for your humble servant.”
Sons: “You don’t say, Mr. Nobody! After all, your father was not a university professor! You may go!”
(Borsszem Jankó, Budapest, 1910)
Sic Transit Pestilentia 