[Ads-l] Quote Origin: He is the only genius with an IQ of 85

[Jonathan Lighter]

I can think of other applications.

JL

On Tue, Aug 12, 2025 at 5:19 PM ADSGarson O'Toole <
00001aa1be50b751-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

> Cultural critic Gore Vidal once offered a remarkably harsh assessment
> of the famous pop-artist Andy Warhol. Here are two versions:
>
> He is the only genius with an IQ of 60.
> He is the only genius with an IQ of 85.
>
> I was asked to find a citation. The earliest match I found appeared in
> "The Transatlantic Review" of Salisbury, England in 1975. The team of
> Victor Bockris and Andrew Wylie interviewed Gore Vidal who delivered
> the provocative comment:
>
> [ref]1975 Autumn (Published October 1975), The Transatlantic Review,
> Number 52, Interview of Gore Vidal conducted by Bockris-Wylie, Start
> Page 85, Quote Page 88, Printed at The Compton Press Ltd., Salisbury,
> Wiltshire, England. (Verified with scans) [/ref]
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> What do you think of the intelligence of Andy Warhol?
>
> I have said of him, and it has been much quoted, that he is the only
> genius with an IQ of 85. And I don't mean that in a necessarily
> pejorative way; the emphasis is more on the genius than the lowness of
> his IQ. He is sort of a cultural litmus paper. He was the first person
> to realise that modern art, the visual arts, was shit. And he proved
> it in a rather marvelous way; he just sent it all up, and he got away
> with it. Which makes it a double victory.
> [End excerpt]
>
> The phrasing used by Vidal suggested that he had made this remark
> previously, but I haven't found any earlier matches.
>
> Here is a link to the QI article:
> https://quoteinvestigator.com/2025/08/12/only-genius/
>
> Feedback and illuminating citations would be welcome.
> Garson O'Toole
> QuoteInvestigator.com
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


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