W.C.Fields

[Dennis R. Preston]

Alexey,

You are right. I always prefer such sophisticated comedy as that of Benny
Hill to any cheap American stand-up stuff.

dInIs (not in enough of an Anglophile mood this morning to put up with a
cheap shot like that)

>I do not know whether O.Wilde said this or no, but it certainly seems very
>unlikely. The phrase sounds like a cheap American stand-up comedy style
>joke, that turned out to be funny afterwards, not like the delicate jokes
>with several layers that Wilde used to make. Can anybody think of a
>quotation by Wilde in which he uses the F-word? I can hardly imagine that.
>And of course, the sentences "Water? I never touch the stuff..." are
>purely American, you can almost hear the dumb drums and artificial
>laughter behind the scenes.
>Maybe I am wrong, can anybody provide a reference to this or similar
>quotations in Wilde?
>
>
>
>On Wed, 8 Sep 1999 GRADMA at UVVM.UVIC.CA wrote:
>
>> I have always heard the "Water? I never touch the stuf..." attributed to
>> Oscar Wilde. Somehow it does seem like something that he would say.
>>
>> Barbara Harris
>>

Dennis R. Preston
Professor of Linguistics
Department of Linguistics and Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
preston at pilot.msu.edu
Office: (517)353-0740
Fax: (517)432-2736