A Conversation for Oscar Wilde - Playwright and Wit

Oscar Winning

Post 1

Recumbentman

There is a story about Oscar's response to winning the Newdigate prize at Oxford; in the style he was to make his own, he flaunted it to a ridiculous extent (after all "nothing exceeds like excess") by saying "Every year someone gets a Newdigate; but it's not every year the Newdigate gets an Oscar". This has been suggested as the possible origin of the Academy Awards' nickname.

He was as he described himself vastly over-educated; and it was inevitable that his brand of humour should get up the nose of many less educated or educatable people.

One of my favourite Wilde stories was his boast at a dinner that he could talk for as long as the company liked on any subject. "Queen Victoria" was proposed, but all Oscar came back with was "Her Majesty is not a subject".


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Oscar Winning

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