To quote: Wilde and Shaw supply most humorous lines of all time

In 1663 the French playwright and actor Molière wrote in La Critique de l’École des Femmes that “it’s an odd job, making decent people laugh”.

Irish dramatist Oscar Wilde would have been amused by that comment, just as he might have had a giggle at discovering that he has become the most quotable figure in the history of the English language, published yesterday, on his birthday.

He might have been doubly amused to find that his nearest rival for quotable quotes is also an Irish dramatist, George Bernard Shaw, according to the latest edition of the Oxford Dictionary of Humorous Quotations.