Who’s allowed to parody Oscar Wilde? Wilde wrote (in a letter to writer Walter Hamilton) that good parody needs “a light touch, and a fanciful treatment and, oddly enough, a love of the poet whom it caricatures” and he famously stated: “one’s disciples can parody one—nobody else.” Leverson had Wilde’s blessing and (imho) she remains the best. I’ve picked the Ernest parody for this list because it has some of my favourite lines but there’s not much in it—I also want to recommend ‘An Afternoon Party’ (available to read here) in which characters from a number of his works gather and chat.
(This is also my way of sneaking Wilde onto this list).
First published in Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 108, 2 March 1895. Available to read here
A Personal Anthology 