The Importance of Being Earnest - Oscar Wilde - So You Haven't Read

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Jack Worthing, an upstanding socialite, victorian gentleman, and a perfect moral citizen! That is until he gets to London where Jack lets loose and becomes Earnest! The unruly brother that tears around the city. However, Jack's double life will inevitably become VERY complicated as his loved ones begin to discover his duplicity.
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♪ Intro music: "Coffee Beans" by Mike Wuerth
♪ Outro music: "So You Haven't Read Theme" by Tiffany Roman
#SoYouHaventRead #TheImportanceofBeingEarnest #OscarWilde

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[@Joeballs187]

If I was a chim chimney chim chim chiru cleaning out the gutters just for you I love to climb up the chim chimney chim chim cimiedy chim for you it's something to do with traditionssss and the song of you as long as it's done from the chim chimidie chim true I feel like that should be like ta-roo I remember roo the little joey and his MoMA really always loved seeing them in the hundred acre woods see now im 😭 GD lol

[@hanad29]

Can you make a video about Ibn Taymiyyah and his conflict with Mongols

[@Jaydoggy531]

"To speak frankly, I am not in favour of long engagements. They give people the opportunity of finding out each other's character before marriage, which I think is never advisable." - Lady Bracknell, one of the most savage one-liners against the aristocracy ever.

[@kathrynblakeley9823]

Oscar Wild did not give the aristocracy quarter from criticism. I appreciate you posting this because honestly one of the best lines which is really hard because there’s a lot of good lines in that show 😊

[@heylo5274]

It's a jab against all marriages tbh

[@mattdragon333]

Funny enough, it still applies to modern day relationships How many have you seen where people do know each other before jumping into one?

[@MAlanThomasII]

"Gwendolen, it is a terrible thing for a man to find out suddenly that all his life he has been speaking nothing but the truth. Can you forgive me?" "I can. For I feel that you are sure to change."

[@MariaVosa]

Every word in this novel/play is pure gold.

[@22espec]

You would think that women nowadays would not fall that easily and you would be very wrong,

[@abdiabdi3225]

@@22espec hell most people regardless of gender would

[@laurenhawes7201]

"I mean, my name is Matt but that doesn't mean I'm a small rug" is honestly the funniest line in the episode.

[@Ggdivhjkjl]

Maybe he is.

[@1003JustinLaw]

I like the film adaptation’s ending better, where Jack claims to be christened Earnest, but it turns out he’s actually named after his real father, Jack. And when Lady Bracknell protests that Jack is displaying triviality, he says “on the contrary Aunt Augusta, I’ve only just realized the vital importance of being Earnest”, and that word play is, for me, a masterstroke.

[@justinbuergi9867]

That gave me a good laugh when I saw it in class.

[@kefkaZZZ]

“Big Boinking Oscar Wilde, father of over 100 illegitimate children and author of the best selling pamphlet: “Why I like To Do It With Girls”, and we had him sent up the river for being a Whoopsie” -Edmund Blackadder

[@justinbuergi9867]

Finally a book I’ve actually read This was a weird one. Loved when he faked his fake brothers death

[@bbarrett726]

Same here kinda. I've never read it but I did see the play once.

[@twodoorcinema123]

play

[@johnyesjustjohn]

Lady Bracknell saying, “A handbag?!?” generally defines the overall motif of the play when performed - it can be quiet horror, pompous arrogance, histrionic, etc.

[@theapostatejack8648]

I was looking for that quote. I am pleased to find it. Thank you.

[@y_fam_goeglyd]

My mum's favourite line. She saw a film of it back in the 40s and Lady Bracknell was played by a really great actress. The way she said, "A handbaaag!?" cracked mum up and she could never keep a straight face if someone said those words completely out of context. 🤣

[@standardissue9029]

Literally watched this in my AP Lit class. It was.... a weird experience.

[@west_8189]

Same bro, at the very beginning of the year lmao

[@christophercao7027]

A... Wilde experience, some might say. I'll see myself out.

[@standardissue9029]

@@christophercao7027 Yessir

[@k-sayre6045]

@@west_8189 how it's been uploaded for 2 hours you walnut

[@kathrynblakeley9823]

@@christophercao7027 No don’t show yourself out in all earnestness this was good

[@MichaelCutts7]

My college roommate and I wrote a modern version in the form of a screenplay where Earnest/Jack assumed a new identity when he got to College to hide from his super religious parents. Algernon figures this out, goes to Earnest’s rich parents home, and holds his secret as blackmail while he trows a wild party. The first half was an adaption of the play but then devolves into an 80s party movie complete with double identity, romance, and hijinks.

[@Crazyivan777]

Okay, I want to read this play now!

[@ayindestevens6152]

@@Crazyivan777 me too!

[@guywithaplan8556]

I'd love to read this

[@deralmighty8011]

Reminds me of the time I tried to re-write Tirso de Molina's don Juan play but set it in the future and it quickly evolved into gratuitious, violent porn.

[@invisiblefan2387]

I’d Loooooooove to read that!

[@DragoniteSpam]

"My name is Matt, but that doesn't mean I'm a small rug" Too late, it's part of EC canon now.

[@offduty23]

"The truth is rarely pure, and never simple."

[@Niels_Larsen]

The fact that Doyle praised Wilde as an author towering over him even after he was convicted, speaks a lot to Wilde's talent as a writer.

[@Daemonworks]

Related reading: Jekyll and Hyde. In the actual book Hyde is less a new person than a disguise that lets Jekyll get away with doing all the things he feels would ruin his reputation. Very much is the same space regarding the hypocrisy of upper clas society in particular.

[@coolsceegaming6178]

One example I know of why he did it was a gentleman’s club. Jekyll could never go in without being seen as a degenerate. Hyde however? It was precisely what he would do.

[@jasonblalock4429]

Yeah, I feel like Jekyll and Hyde has really gotten Flanderized over the years, especially once people started pushing the physical transformation further and further, until we got things like LXG where's basically a perverted version of The Hulk. (For that matter, Hyde was supposed to be *smaller* than Jekyll, not larger.)

[@mikeg2306]

Stevenson had a long correspondence with J.M. Barrie who wrote Peter Pan and there are hints that it was more then professional (even though they never met).

[@Bubblegob]

I remember Wilde being the first author I read in english and this play in particular with its constant wordplay was one of the best of those early reading, it's just hilarious. The wordplay between Earnest and Ernest while simple is what convinced me to reread it multiple times in case I missed some of the subtleties. I already loved Wilde from translated short stories but this play really made me fall in love with the english langage.

[@suedoe4316]

Honestly I did not love The Importance of Being Earnest but just in case anyone else falls in that camp and is thinking of writing off Oscar Wilde, I found The Picture of Dorian Gray to be utterly magnificent.

[@feitocomfruta]

Another example of how people in that time valued the IMAGE of morality versus actual morality.

[@Bubblegob]

"Happy prince and other tales" contains some incredible short stories, give it a try.

[@HarrySmith-hr2iv]

They are both superb stories, read and then watch the online movie versions.

[@johndododoe1411]

I didn't know Wilde was also a photographer 😊

[@ChristopherSmith-il6fo]

I wonder how many people have shipped Jack and Algernon before the plot twist.

[@MarysArtOnWheels]

My favourite play ever!😍 That said, there's quite a few things I won't forgive Victorian society and destroying Oscar Wilde is one of them!

[@StorymasterQ]

I wonder what people 100 years from now won't forgive us for destroying 🤔

[@marny3559]

He was a pedophile.

[@voland6846]

@@StorymasterQ the climate

[@mewmew8932]

@@voland6846 we won't have one

[@herman1francis]

I think a great addition to this series would be : So you haven't read Tirant lo blanc. It is a classic of medieval literature and a shining pearl of Catalan literature.

[@wordsmith6154]

I saw the play at my local theater maybe two years ago. I loved it. It's one of my favorite comedies to this very day. One of my friends played Gwendolen and one of my brother's played Jack/Earnest and they were both fantastic!

[@chris7263]

This was one of two plays that my highschool put on that I went to, I still remember it very fondly for that. I did not realize at the time that it had a LGBT history--and this was like 2002, when that would have been more controversial, so now I wonder if someone in the faculty was making a statement that went right over my head at the time.

[@johndododoe1411]

It stopped being controversial way before that, except in Britain and other backwards countries .

[@thepinkgalstudiosbutgacha9417]

Love how this comes out the day after my English exam and we had to study this play, a day too late Extra credit, a day too late /hj

[@dandylionwine]

I was taken to a handful of plays when I was a kid, but this is the only one that ever stuck with me. It did such a good job illustrating that Victorian hypocrisy to a child who was just starting to be confused about why people will say one thing and do another that I remember I got very quickly frustrated with the "whipped cream topping" and wanted the play to go much deeper with its theme. In hindsight, I'm sure it was very bemusing for the adults to have to explain to a little kid why Wilde couldn't afford to have written it so heavy-handed.

[@pennyvanni]

I remember seeing this play as a child and really enjoyed it, now I can revisit it as an adult and see it through new eyes. It really is a wonderful classic and worth the read/viewing.

[@Zeverinsen]

This is one of my favourite stories! It was quite funny, which made it an amazing light in the dark of my high-school curriculum!

[@Ryu_D]

Thank you for the video.

[@crouchingmarker]

I once saw this done on stage with a cast of two. They began the play making almost painfully slow transitions between characters, and ended the second act wearing jackets and skirts, covering the costume part they weren't playing with a parasol to switch between the men and the women in the two romantic pairings, performing Chasuble and Prism with puppets, and ducking in and out of Lady Bracknell's costume - which was held on a stand in the middle of the stage - as needed.

[@tacothursday7364]

That sounds incredible

[@haiwasup3875]

I really like this series, great work!

[@andrewklang809]

Books and plays aren't that similar in how they're engaged with, and above all, how they feel. Reading a play is a lot more difficult than watching a good performance of it; you'll miss a lot of nuance. Just noticing there's been a lot of theater/literature crossover lately. EDIT: And as for films...well...the 1950s film is probably the better of the two major adaptations, and still famous enough to be found on streaming. The 2000ish one, despite having the absolute greatest Oscar Wilde stand-in, Rupert Everett, takes a few too many liberties in the interests of being quirky, if not edgy, which to me distracts from the humor itself BEING the irreverence to the nominally stuffy attitudes. But either are preferable to reading the play, at least for an introduction. You gotta get the vibe. Though, IMHO, the 1999 version of An Ideal Husband is the absolute best Wilde adaptation, and a fantastic place to start, even if it is not so much silly as Earnest.

[@kaltaron1284]

OTOH books can give a lot more context and internal views without breaking the flow. Both media have their strengths.

[@andrewklang809]

@@kaltaron1284 Reading an annotated version of the play after seeing it performed (so you have a better idea of the characters' personalities beyond what you can pick up from the written word) is a good way to quickly familiarize yourself with all the period context. Then watch it a second time, and see how much more you pick up.

[@kaltaron1284]

@@andrewklang809 That's a good point. I watched "The Magic Flute" and the little booklet that came with the ticket was quite some help to follow everything. Even though I knew the story beforehand.

[@AegixDrakan]

My mom read the play to me in my teen years and it was genuinely hilarious (although I had no way of seeing the sarcastic point it was making at the time) There's two moments that really stick with me from it: Jack is flipping out at Algernon for messing everything up and he caps his rant off with "-So how can you sit here, calmly eating muffins?!" To which Algernon calmly replies: "It's simply impossible to eat muffins in an agitated manner!" And the other, when Lady B is losing her mind over Jack's parentage being, essentially, a *handbag* and demanding to see his parents, Jack can only say "I never knew my parents...But I can produce the handbag for you if you wish?" Both of those had me cracking up something fierce. XD

[@tyto9188]

I remember being part of my high school's production of The Importance of being Earnest. It was so fun.

[@fredleckie5880]

My favourite play, so witty and clever

[@rebelcities8200]

Loved this play - I went to see it at Manchester's Library Theatre - it was the first play they ever put on, and the last one they did there (that's the time I saw it). It is just so silly and full of brilliant witticisms, and when delivered well is just the most fun romp.

[@redacted_lol]

I loved it! I'll make sure to check the libraries near me.

[@Segalmed]

The theatre group at the school I went to (in Germany) did this play and did it very well. I still remember that performance although it's more than 30 years ago.

[@maxfieldjoyner5244]

My dad actually played Lady Bracknell in a production of this play years ago.

[@Game_Hero]

seeing your father in drag must have been quite a sight

[@dethspud]

Love the times I've seen this live. The movies are pretty good too.

[@jcrb9420]

Amazing video! Vastly accurate and a great explanation. If you haven’t yet, I exceedingly recommend you to make a short summary of Lord Arthur Seville’s Crime; another of Wildes classics also considers as on of the best 😊

[@pentagonofpeople]

Absolutely loved reading this in English class in high school. My best friend and I often got to read the parts for Algernon and Jack respectively and we got really heated and in-character during the muffin scene

[@killertigerace]

It was the first play I watched in college and I enjoyed it soo much, probably one of the top 3 plays I saw in college

[@persistenturge]

I'm going to see this play tonight! I'm not great at hearing - and well, there's no subtitles in real life, so thank you!

[@arcticpossi_schw1siantuntija42]

That rug thing :D very funny

[@FluffyEmmy1116]

Great video, Mr. Small Rug

[@stardustandflames126]

WOW. Incredible plot point after plot point. That's so cool.

[@zerohere2641]

I had the amazing opportunity to play jack for an acting exam and I must say it was absolutely hilarious, I highly recommend watching the play!

[@evilmurlock]

I love the blushes

[@f.-J]

The quotes are the beginning are quite true imo

[@bogjoore]

I'm really glad I got to watch the film as well as read the book in high school English! Man was it a fun story!

[@voyagebypen]

Honestly before this video I only knew 'The Importance of Being Earnest' from Spiderman 2

[@john80c]

Seen the play, the movie and read the book -total class and very funny

[@joshuaevans6295]

Was Wilde consciously emulating Shakespeare? Because this summary reminds me a lot of many of Shakespeare's comedies, what with the two pairs of romantic interests, secret family ties, unlikely series of events...

[@manny2248]

The ending was just crazy

[@furcrafter4105]

Hilariously enough my English 2 class was assigned this play for this week of study.

[@pyrotechnick420]

These are good, can you cover an Arthur C. Clarke short story or book in this format?

[@melissamarsh2219]

If you love this, I recommend watching Wilde starring Stephen Fry as Oscar Wilde and Jude Law as Bosey. It’s beautiful and sad

[@rmod42]

"A Handbag?!?!?"

[@CartoonHistory]

2:33 simpler times for an author... When necessary plot points could be completely ridiculous 😅

[@naly202]

"To lose one parent might be considered a misfortune, to lose both parents is carelessness" A Haaaandbagggg!?

[@silver3660]

Could you do a video on the book night by Elie Wiesel. It's a book about the Holocaust and a Jew who survived it.

[@richardcutts196]

I've seen a couple of versions of this and I think the best is the one from 1952.

[@d.m.conroy6717]

this is good

[@gwonbusH]

And to think that Bunbury wasn't mentioned once.

[@scouttyra]

A book that might be good material for one of these videos: the epic sci-fi poem Aniara by Harry Martinson. It tells the tale of a spaceship headed from a destroyed earth to a colonized mars that gets knocked off course, and in the process loses it's fuel and with it the ability to correct its route. Has quite a bit of existential themes.

[@floweryfelix5190]

Where was this video when I was doing my literature project on Oscar Wilde

[@yiffytimes]

If you want a terrific film version of this tale I recommend the 1952 version with Michael Redgrave, Margaret Rutherford and the brilliant Edith Evans as Lady Bracknell. The big difference between this and the 2002 version. The 1952 version plays it more as a farce.

[@loganfish1015]

Can you please make a video on the book around the world in 80 days.

[@calzybmapping3550]

Nice

[@ian2081]

The importance of the importance of being Earnest

[@GabyGibson]

5:04 I'M DYING, HA!

[@johnmichaelcule8423]

The name is spelled 'Ernest'. The adjective in the title is spent 'Earnest'. You might have mentioned the film versions which started the rehabilitation of the play.

[@zeusathena26]

I've always loved both the book, & the movie. If you don't read books, watch the movie.

[@user-gi8pk9uc7q]

Suing the Marquis was Wilde's worst decision ever!

[@screamingalgae9380]

Well, more one of the consequences of his worst decision--to get involved with a spoiled sociopath in the first place. Lord Douglas not only deliberately provoked his father (when Queensbury wrote his accusations and threats to him, Douglas wrote back with phrases like "what a funny little man you are" and "I detest you"), he was probably the only person to actively encourage Wilde to sue--which for Wilde to do was indeed insanely stupid.

[@jamespusey7186]

that resolution is so stupid i laughed so hard lmao

[@DJchilcott]

Wilde, Turing and all the others should never have been pardoned. Pardoned implies they did something wrong in the first place. It should have been a post-humous apology on behalf of the government of the time.

[@fantasy873]

Well, that got insane fast.

[@SnowyMetalNerdDudeDuffield]

There's a great audiobook version on audible narrated by Stephen Fry just FYI.

[@jonathanstern5537]

I was in this play in college. I played Jack/Earnest. It was so much fun.

[@sptownsend999]

The whole "mockery of Victorian social etiquette" theme makes me think of _HMS Pinafore_ and _The Pirates of Penzance_ by Gilbert and Sullivan!

[@MovieFan1912]

I remember this being a play that Mary Jane Watson was in at one point.

[@iulaihe51299]

"if you must know me and this wallpaper are in a duel to the death one of us must go" Oscar wilde on his deathbed

[@EricStelzman]

Hopefully for June, I would like to see an Extra History one-shot on the Stonewall riots.

[@yobgodababua1862]

I did not know his lover's father was the literal Marquis of Queensbury. They should have fought it out by his rules rather than in the courts.

[@yobgodababua1862]

Also, if you are ever in Paris, be sure to visit his tomb in Père Lachaise. It is elegant in it's own right, but also covered in lipstick kisses and graffiti that make it a proper work of living art that I'd like to think he would appreciate.

[@ovh992]

The work in question is not a novel. It is a play. It was specifically written for the stage.

[@valheart1643]

Happy Pride Month!!! What a story to cover during pride month. (I'm assuming its intentional) I took a class this past spring on Drama where we read and discussed different plays. We read the Importance of Being Earnest and I did a lot of research about the play and Oscar Wilde. We talked about all the stuff you mentioned in this video. This was a small class and the majority was LGBTQ so most of the discussion was surrounding the gayness of the play, and the parallels to Oscar's life. I love this play and I could talk about it so much.

[@danielhale1]

That ending is better than the movie adaptation I watched. The movie removed a lot of that social commentary, and particularly I remember the ending totally differently (and a lot more frivolous and less clever on commentary) from what you describe. IMO that's a mistake, but oh well movie's gonna movie.

[@Kaiju-Driver]

Nice. :)

[@eldi6920]

English Literature students across the U.K. need to study this play for their qualifications and sat the relevant exam scarcely a day ago. At least it'll help next year, right?

[@SL-fd5fp]

Freaking LOVE me some Oscar Wilde x

[@eoinconnolly5046]

A detail from the libel trial is the lawyer that brought the evidence to light wss Edward Carson, who was in college with Wilde

[@cherubuni2631]

this is fab

[@SomeShavedSheep]

“Hey Matt, what did you think of my first draft for this episode?” “I didn’t think it polite to read.”

[@postapocalypticnewsradio]

PANR has tuned in.

[@Spencer481]

My mom's name is Cecily because of this book!

[@kanijalal6259]

I can’t believe that Gwendolen turns out to be Jack’s real cousin.

[@deralmighty8011]

My biggest concern was always the overly contrive ending. It sounds like something Ruiz de Alarcón would have come up with. Not surprising considering the Mexican-born playwright was also the subject of a lot of unjust cruelty throughout his life, what with being a red-headed, Mexican hunchback living in Spain and all that.

[@richardb4665]

Oooh... typo at 4:04... or is that just to make sure we're paying attention?

[@DataCab1e]

Wait... you're telling me this isn't Jim Varney's autobiography?

[@MarBarz]

Is extra mythology gonna have anything new coming?

[@trudymugford3583]

are you going to do jekyll and hyde yet?

[@MagicalOdds]

Who animated this new art style?