“I’ve just opened a shop selling telescopes. Business is looking up”

“‘My business is looking up,’ as the man with the ‘Penny a peep’ telescope told the policeman” was printed under “SAM WELLERISMS“ in Judy: The London Serio-comic Journal (London, UK) on April 30, 1890. 
       
“I’ve Just opened a shop selling telescopes.. Business is looking up” was posted on Twitter by Bob Kostic (and others) on December 27, 2012. This version probably originated on the Sickipedia website.
   
 
Wikipedia: Wellerism
Wellerisms, named after sayings of Sam Weller in Charles Dickens’s novel The Pickwick Papers, make fun of established clichés and proverbs by showing that they are wrong in certain situations, often when taken literally. In this sense, wellerisms that include proverbs are a type of anti-proverb. Typically a wellerism consists of three parts: a proverb or saying, a speaker, and an often humorously literal explanation.
   
Google Books
30 April 1890, Judy: The London Serio-comic Journal (London, UK), pg. 214, col. 2:
SAM WELLERISMS.
(...)
“My business is looking up,” as the man with the “Penny a peep” telescope told the policeman.
     
Google Books
1931, Punch (London, UK), pg. 281:
One hears many complaints about bad trade, but the man with the telescope at Westminster Bridge tells us that business is looking up.
 
Twitter
528Hz
@MarkoESQ
I’ve Just opened a shop selling telescopes..
Business is looking up.
9:37 AM · Dec 27, 2012·Twitter Web App
 
Twitter
Benji Prescott
@Benji_Prescott
I’ve Just opened a shop selling telescopes..
Business is looking up.
9:41 AM · Dec 27, 2012·Facebook
 
Twitter
Bob Kostic
@causticbob
I’ve Just opened a shop selling telescopes..
Business is looking up.
9:41 AM · Dec 27, 2012·TweetDeck
   
Twitter
QT@Anon
@QTAnon1
I recently opened a shop selling telescopes. My business is looking up!
9:55 AM · Nov 12, 2019·Hootsuite Inc.
 
Reddit—3amjokes
Posted by u/Rav4xle June 22, 2020
I’ve just opened a shop selling Telescopes.
Business is looking up.
COMMENTS
cannot_describe_it
You’ll be able to magnify the profit in no time! The business won’t even take up much space!