“What do you call children born in whorehouses?”/“Brothel sprouts.”

A riddle about Brussels sprouts is:
 
Q: What do you call children born in whorehouses?
A: Brothel sprouts.

 
The “brothel sprouts” pun has been cited in print since at least 1950, when the joke was told by New York City’s Port Authority Commissioner.
 
 
Wikipedia: Brussels sprout
The Brussels sprout is a member of the Gemmifera Group of cabbages (Brassica oleracea), grown for its edible buds.
 
The leafy green vegetables are typically 2.5–4 cm (0.98–1.6 in) in diameter and look like miniature cabbages. The Brussels sprout has long been popular in Brussels, Belgium, and may have originated and gained its name there.
   
Google Books
Saturday Review of Literature
Volume 33, Part 2
1950
Pg. 5:
In Manhattan, a Port Authority Commissioner revealed that the name reserved by the police for children born in houses of shame is brothel sprouts.
 
Google Books
Bennett Cerf’s Bumper Crop
By Bennett Cerf
Garden City, NY: Garden City Books
1952
Pg. 91:
And Commissioner Cullman discloses the name invented by the police for kids picked up in disorderly houses: brothel sprouts.
 
27 October 1964, The Daily Sikeston Standard (Sikeston, MO), pg. 2, col. 8:
The Unabashed Dictionary describes offspring of a prostitute as brothel sprouts.
 
31 January 1974, Detroit (MI) Free Press, “Jokes: The Least Humor Brings Most Laughs?,” pg. 1-C, col. 1:
SONNY ELLIOT, TV weather and funny man: (...) “What’s a child born in a house of ill repute? A brothel sprout.”
 
10 October 1979, Reno (NV) Evening Gazette, Rollan Melton column, pg. 23, col. 1:
Helen Nolte offered a question and then the answer. Said the Reno woman: “What is a prostitute’s child called? A brotthel sprout.”
 
24 July 1981, Boston (MA) Herald American, “A high tech touch to graffiti” (UPI), pg. A12, col. 2:
“Children from a house of ill-repute are called brothel sprouts,” ...
 
Google Books
No Laughing Matter:
An Analysis of Sexual Humor

By Gershon Legman
Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press
1982
Pg. 217:
“What do they call a pross’s children?—Brothel’s sprouts.” (Chelmsford, Essex, 1954.
   
7 June 1992, Northwest Florida Daily News (Fort Walton Beach, FL), “Desk mess a sampler of ideas,” pg. 1B:
Bud Goldsmith has shared some of his clever writing with me, and here’s Cheryl Stauffer’s puns; sample: What do you call the children born to ladies of the evening? Brothel Sprouts.
 
Urban Dictionary
Brothel Sprouts
children concieved from orgies
Tha tute has brothel sproats like a farmer has cabbage patches
by John Metcalf May 13, 2004
 
Urban Dictionary
Brothel Sprout
Noun: Children that are born in whore houses.
(...)
by phrezur_burn December 08, 2011
 
Google Books
Another Bob and Brenda’s Joke Book
By Paul Gwilliam
Lulu Publishing (Lulu.com)
2013
Pg. ?:
What do you call children born in whorehouses?
Brothel sprouts.
   
Twitter
LaffGaff‏
@LaffGaff
What do you call children born in whorehouses?
Brothel sprouts.
#funny #jokes #jokeoftheday
4:12 PM - 1 May 2017