'UK's greatest wit'

[dec]

'UK's greatest wit'

1. Oscar Wilde
2. Spike Milligan

[Pangurban]

Flann O Brian
Spike Milligan
Paul Merton
G.B.Shaw

[ziggysego]

A Dave spokeswoman told the BBC News website he was considered an "honorary Brit" for the purposes of the poll.

Says it all really.

[Balboa]

Jimmy Tarbuck
Jimmy Cricket
Frank Carson
Jim Davidson

[Square Ball]

Think that Dave is a great name for a TV station.

[ziggysego]

Think that Dave is a great name for a TV station.

It's on Freeview now, which I think is fantastic. EPG 19.

[Solomon Kane]

A Dave spokeswoman told the BBC News website he was considered an "honorary Brit" for the purposes of the poll.

Says it all really.

Was Ireland not part of the UK when Wilde was alive?

[inisceithleann]

A Dave spokeswoman told the BBC News website he was considered an "honorary Brit" for the purposes of the poll.

Says it all really.

Was Ireland not part of the UK when Wilde was alive?

Yeah it was. But look at the example of Spike Milligan. The British will claim him now as a comic genius but yet wouldn't give him citizenship because he was born to an Irish father in India and refused to take an oath of allegiance, despite the fact that he fought in the British Army. I think a similar point is being made regarding Oscar Wilde.

[Turlough O Carolan]

A Dave spokeswoman told the BBC News website he was considered an "honorary Brit" for the purposes of the poll.

Says it all really.

Was Ireland not part of the UK when Wilde was alive?

That did not make the people born on the island British, as Britain afterall was the island next door. The Wilde family - especially Oscar's mother - were very nationalistic. Some of her writings for the Nation newspaper are as vitriolic in their condemnation of Britain as anything I have ever read.

[Puckoon]

Obviously Id be siding with Spike Milligan. Anyone who has ever read me can vouch for his sparkling wit. A legend in my eyes from the very first day my dad handed me a tattered copy of Puckoon.

[Orior]

I'd have voted for ONeill.

[john mcgill]

I tried a version of Wilde's wit when he stated at US customs " I have nothing to declare but my genius".  Couple of years ago in Newark NJ with my wife who uses her maiden name on the passport, the friendly immigration officer took our two passports and said "relationship?".  My reply of "strained at times" was not apprecaited. Time after I just said "yes sir".

[deiseach]

I tried a version of Wilde's wit when he stated at US customs " I have nothing to declare but my genius".  Couple of years ago in Newark NJ with my wife who uses her maiden name on the passport, the friendly immigration officer took our two passports and said "relationship?".  My reply of "strained at times" was not apprecaited. Time after I just said "yes sir".

[DMarsden]

Some witty real headstones....


Epitaph: A belated advertisment for a line of goods that has been permantly discontinued.


Here Lies
Ezekail Aikle
Aged 102
The Good
Die Young


Hotten
Rotten
Forgotten


Where his soul's gone or how it fares
Nobody knows, and nobody cares


Here Einstein lies:
At least they laid his bier
Just hereabouts -
Or Relatively near


Here lies my wife: here let her lie !
Now she's at rest and so am I


Against his will
Here lies George Hill
Who from a cliff
Fell quite stiff
When it happen'd is not known
Therefore not mentioned on this stone

[Evil Genius]

Was Ireland not part of the UK when Wilde was alive?

That did not make the people born on the island British, as Britain afterall was the island next door. The Wilde family - especially Oscar's mother - were very nationalistic. Some of her writings for the Nation newspaper are as vitriolic in their condemnation of Britain as anything I have ever read.

Of course the mere fact of having being born within the UK does not automatically make one "British", but are you also implying that it is not possible to be Irish and British?

Wilde's mother, Speranza, undoubtedly had very Irish Nationalist politics, but so what? His father was a Knight of the Realm and an eye specialist to Queen Victoria.

If you look at the man himself, his British heritage was arguably much more significant than his Irish heritage:

Family - Impeccably Anglo-Irish;
Nationality - UK;
Education - Portora Royal School, Trinity College Dublin, Magdalen College Oxford;
Wife and Children - English;
Residence - After leaving Oxford in 1878, he only visited Ireland three times (all briefly), before his death in 1900 - the rest was in England (or exile in France);
Social Circles - British Aristocracy;
Literary Work - Quintessentially English/British (e.g. "The Importance of Being Earnest", "The Picture of Dorian Gray", "Lady Windermere's Fan" etc.)

The conventional description for someone like Wilde is the 18th/19th Century term "Anglo-Irish", a term which pays due regard to his dual identity and background.

Of course, I would not deny Wilde's "Irishness" in the way, for example, his fellow Dubliner, the Duke of Wellington was wont to do his own. But to deny Wilde's obvious Britishness, with all the impact that had on him and he had on Britain, is a very one-eyed stance to take.