Since I got into e-mail pretty late (1998, in fact), these systems all seem rather antediluvian to me. But there was a time when jokes like these went around like wildfire on facsimile transmission.
I once typeset a joke I rather enjoyed, using a variety of typefaces, and faxed it to a friend. Within a week (quite quick back in those days) a completely different friend passed it on to me as the latest hot news!
Those were the days . . .