“The cannibal had a wife and ate kids”

A popular cannibal pun is:
 
“The cannibal had a wife and ate (eight) kids.”
   
American author and English teacher Richard Lederer wrote in Get Thee to a Punnery (1988):
   
“Have you heard about the cannibal who had a wife and ate children?”
 
     
Google News Archive
18 March 1990, The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR), “Flavorful foibles, punny games for word lovers” by Lee Crawley Kirk, pg. 6F, cols. 4-5:
You can learn about homophones (Have you heard about the cannibal who had a wife and ate children?), homographics, and double sounds (the typical knock-knock Joke.)
(Review of Get Thee to a Punnery by Richard Lederer.—ed.)
 
Google Groups: alt.tasteless.jokes
A Page of One-Liners
Girdle Popper
4/5/98
(...)
•How do you describe the average cannibal?
A guy with a wife and ate children.
 
Google Groups: alt.humor.puns
Puns of the Weak: 12/07/01
Stan Kegel
12/7/01
(...)
The cannibal’s cookbook titled ‘How to Better Serve Your Fellow Man’ was written by a guy who had a wife and ate kids.  (Bree Schultz)
     
Twitter
Evan Brechtel
‏@EvanBrechtel
Did you hear about the cannibal who had a wife and ate kids? Gotta love english class.
11:18 AM - 25 Sep 2009
   
Google Books 
A Man Walks Into a Bar 3
By Jonathan Swan
London: Ebury Press
2010
Pg. 182:
I went on safari last year and there was a cannibal there who had a wife and ate kids
 
The Amazingly Lame Joke of the Day
Friday, August 12, 2011
And then there was the joke about Bill the cannibal.
He was a relatively ordinary guy; had a house, a wife, and ate children.
Posted by Tim Wycislak at 2:26 AM
     
Google Books
The Mammoth Book of One-Liners
By Geoff Tibballs
London: Constable & Robinson Ltd
2012
Did you hear about the cannibal who had a wife and ate kids?