Working with publishers at Oxford University Press, editor former MP Gyles Brandreth had the responsibility to select 5,000 of the funniest lines ever uttered, scribbled or typed.
Brandreth explained how he went about this mammoth task. “What makes them eligible for the Dictionary is that what they say raises a smile or a laugh and is memorable – and they manage to do it again and again. These are the most quotable and, in our book, the most quoted.”
However, the Guardian has commented that Brandreth’s editorship is “notably ‘establishment’ in flavour.” The Tories certainly make themselves heard, with Boris Johnson quotes abounding yet there is nothing from Cameron or Osborne.
If the Dictionary is any indication of political success, Boris Johnson has a lot to look forward to: his thirteen quotations beat Margaret Thatcher’s eleven, supposedly making him the third wittiest politician of all time. He loses out to fellow Conservatives Winston Churchhill (with thirty-two) and Benjamin Disraeli (twenty-eight) in this regard.
But it’s not just the establishment who get a look in. More modern quotations get a fair representation, with Stephen Fry quoted as saying, “The email of the species is deadlier than the male.” Other twentieth century newcomers include female comedians Jo Brand and Miranda Hart.
For the most quoted figure of all time, one has to look to the nineteenth century. Oscar Wilde, the playwright and celebrated wit, has a total of ninety-two entries. Brandreth explained, “Wilde is leagues ahead of the rest of the pack. He is without doubt the most quoted and quotable of them all.”
If this is anything to go by, Wilde seems to have lived by his own maxim, once saying, “There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about and that is not being talked about.” The release date of the dictionary coincided with Wilde’s birthday.
Some at Oxford are not entirely happy with the selection, however. One student, studying a history at Kellogg College, questions the inclusion of a particular Boris Johnson quote , saying, “It seems slightly strange that Gyles Brandreth’s “top one-liner of the twentieth century” goes to Johnson’s quote “my policy on cake is still pro having it and pro eating it.” We might be lacking context but surely this can’t be the funniest thing so far uttered in the twenty first century?”
