Read on Twitter
I’m particularly fond of the sub-genre of Victorian jokes in which women rebuff the unwanted advances of amorous male suitors. They’re often rather savage!
- Tit-Bits (31 Dec 1892)
- Tit-Bits (31 Dec 1892)
Here’s another one. The set-up is longer, but the punchline is far more brutal!
- Tit-Bits (1892)
- Tit-Bits (1892)
Another Victorian courtship comes to a brutal close!
- Tit-Bits (1893)
- Tit-Bits (1893)
The formula of these jokes is probably starting to become clear now. Still, I quite like this one, chiefly because of the man’s absurdly over-the-top declarations of love...
- Tit-Bits (1893).
- Tit-Bits (1893).
Here’s another Victorian joke about proposals. Stick with it...
- Tit-Bits (1893)
- Tit-Bits (1893)
Another savage burn!
- Tit-Bits magazine, 11 March 1893.
- Tit-Bits magazine, 11 March 1893.
Ouch! I’m beginning to feel a bit sorry for these Victorian men now...
- Tit-Bits magazine, 11 March 1893.
- Tit-Bits magazine, 11 March 1893.
The women in these Victorian jokes are positively immune to pick-up lines!
- Tit-Bits (1893)
- Tit-Bits (1893)
I posted this Victorian joke a while back, but it fits the theme! https://twitter.com/VictorianHumour/status/861559712315310080
Proof that the sick burns continued *after* marriage! https://twitter.com/VictorianHumour/status/952152036090564609
Another old one... https://twitter.com/VictorianHumour/status/941641527457206273
Turns out I've posted quite a few jokes on this theme... https://twitter.com/VictorianHumour/status/935922672709533697
One more for now... https://twitter.com/VictorianHumour/status/934618494179643392
A subtler - but no less devastating - burn!
- Answers magazine (1891)
- Answers magazine (1891)
This guy definitely had it coming. What manner of wooing is that?!
- Answers (1891)
- Answers (1891)
Damn, Miss Clara is ice cold!
- Answers (1891)
- Answers (1891)
Another Victorian burn, this time involving a married couple. There’s something more affectionate about this one...
- Tit-Bits (1893)
- Tit-Bits (1893)
Another Victorian suitor savagely rebuffed!
- Tit-Bits (1886)
- Tit-Bits (1886)
Another blistering Victorian burn, this time across class boundaries!
- Answers (1891)
- Answers (1891)
It’s amazing how many Victorian jokes were published on the theme of women mocking men’s romantic advances. I’m finding several of them in each issue of Tit-Bits and Answers in the 1890s...
- Answers (1891)
- Answers (1891)
Note to self: never attempt small-talk with Miss Symphony...
- Tit-Bits (1886)
- Tit-Bits (1886)
Another Victorian chap sees his attempts at romantic conversation mercilessly shot down!
- Tit-Bits (1892)
- Tit-Bits (1892)
I don't seem to be able to let this thread die. Here's another one...
- Pearson's Weekly (1898)
- Pearson's Weekly (1898)
After all these botched attempts at flirting, I feared things wouldn't end well for poor Mr Briggs....
- Pearson's Weekly (1897)
- Pearson's Weekly (1897)
Another pair of jokes for this seemingly never-ending thread!
- Tit-Bits (1893)
- Tit-Bits (1893)
- Pearson's Weekly (1891)
As romantic rejections go, this one is going to be difficult to top...
- Pearson's Weekly (1891)
- Pearson's Weekly (1891)
For the sake of balance...
- Pearson's Weekly (1896)
- Pearson's Weekly (1896)
Blimey! This proposal-rejection joke is the most eye-wateringly brutal one yet...
- Tit-Bits (1889)
- Tit-Bits (1889)
A gentler (and perhaps even encouraging?) retort this time...
- Tit-Bits (1901)
- Tit-Bits (1901)
Another romantic rejection joke!
- Tit-Bits (1901)
- Tit-Bits (1901)
Yet ANOTHER variation on the theme of romantic rejection. I’m beginning to think that Victorian joke writers must have been particularly unlucky in love...
- Tit-Bits (1901)
- Tit-Bits (1901)
At last, a fresh take on the Victorian proposal joke!
- Tit-Bits magazine (1901)
- Tit-Bits magazine (1901)
There are *so many* of these jokes in which Victorian women cut amorous men down to size. In this one she even gets his name wrong!
- Tit-Bits (1901)
- Tit-Bits (1901)
A blistering retort!
- Tit-Bits (1901)
- Tit-Bits (1901)
- Pearson's Weekly (1895)
Another Victorian joke in which a male suitor gets comically rebuffed by a young lady. There’s seemly no end to the genre!
- Tit-Bits (1901)
- Tit-Bits (1901)
- Pearson's Weekly (1895)
A twist on the usual proposal-rejection joke!
- Pearson's Weekly (1895)
- Pearson's Weekly (1895)
- Pearson's Weekly (1895)
More Victorian advice on how to deal with the unwanted advances of aspiring male suitors!
- Pearson’s Weekly (1895)
- Pearson’s Weekly (1895)
Brutal.
- Pearson's Weekly (1895)
- Pearson's Weekly (1895)
- Pearson's Weekly (1895)
- Pearson's Weekly (1895)
- Pearson's Weekly (1895)
- Tit-Bits (1901)
If you're wondering what happened to these Victorian men after their romantic advances were rejected, I think I've found the answer... https://twitter.com/DigiVictorian/status/1017390771329171456
- Pearson's Weekly (1895)
- Pearson's Weekly (1895)
- Pearson's Weekly (1895)
Ouch!
- Tit-Bits (1901)
- Tit-Bits (1901)
I'm afraid that these sick Victorian burns didn't end after marriage...
- Pearson's Weekly (1895)
- Pearson's Weekly (1895)
- Rare Bits (1881)
I still can't bring myself to let this thread die. Another delicious put-down from a witty Victorian lady!
- Rare Bits (1882)
- Rare Bits (1882)
- Rare Bits (1881)
Brutal.
--------
He: "He's a wonderful mindreader. He told me everything in my mind in four or five minutes."
She: "Yes - a fine mindreader - but slow."
- 'Men, Women and Mirth' (1909)
--------
He: "He's a wonderful mindreader. He told me everything in my mind in four or five minutes."
She: "Yes - a fine mindreader - but slow."
- 'Men, Women and Mirth' (1909)
She: "You've been making love to some other girl."
He: "How do you know?"
She: "Because you've improved so."
- 'Men, Women and Mirth' (1909)
He: "How do you know?"
She: "Because you've improved so."
- 'Men, Women and Mirth' (1909)
- Laughter (1890)
'Her Answer'
- The Comedy of Life (1907)
- The Comedy of Life (1907)
Frankly, this bizare attempt at flirting got everything it deserved. What kind of response was he hoping for?!
- Rare Bits (1882)
- Rare Bits (1882)
Ouch!
- Tit-Bits (1881)
- Tit-Bits (1881)
This cartoon is from the 1930s rather than Victorian, but it fits the theme!
The Bore (dramatically): “Picture the jungle by night - the prowling lion in search of prey, and me lying a few feet away.”
The Bored: “Quite! No need to picture the last part. I can HEAR you.”
The Bore (dramatically): “Picture the jungle by night - the prowling lion in search of prey, and me lying a few feet away.”
The Bored: “Quite! No need to picture the last part. I can HEAR you.”
- Tit-Bits (1882)
Not Victorian, but definitely a sick burn!
“Did you see that man I was with? He’s Louis the Sixteenth.”
“Is he, dear? I knew he was your sixteenth, but I didn’t know his name was Louis!”
- The Humorist (1924)
“Did you see that man I was with? He’s Louis the Sixteenth.”
“Is he, dear? I knew he was your sixteenth, but I didn’t know his name was Louis!”
- The Humorist (1924)
Another entry to this never ending thread, this time courtesy of @CathianneX!
- ‘Woman at Home’ magazine (1893)
- ‘Woman at Home’ magazine (1893)
Another blistering Victorian burn!
- Pearson's Weekly (1896)
- Pearson's Weekly (1896)
I don't think this thread of Victorian burns is ever going to end...
- Pearson's Weekly (1896)
- Pearson's Weekly (1896)
- Pearson's Weekly (1896)
- The Humorist (1935)
Another merciless Victorian burn!
- Answers (1889)
- Answers (1889)
Ice cold.
- Answers (1889)
- Answers (1889)
Ouch!
- Answers (1889)
- Answers (1889)
- Answers (1890)
- Answers (1888)
- Answers (1889)
A poetic burn!
- Answers (1889)
- Answers (1889)
Another joke for this never-ending thread of Victorian burns!
- Answers (1889)
- Answers (1889)
Subtle but savage!
- Answers (1889)
- Answers (1889)
This joke is rather over-written (even by Victorian standards), but there's another savage burn buried in there!
- Answers (1889)
- Answers (1889)
- Answers magazine (1889)
Oooof! A devastatingly witty rejection...
- Answers (1889)
- Answers (1889)
Another cutting Victorian put-down!
- Answers (1889)
- Answers (1889)
Yet another blistering Victorian burn!
- Answers magazine (1889)
- Answers magazine (1889)
Good grief! Someone please call an ambulance for Mr Squiggs.
- Answers magazine (1889)
- Answers magazine (1889)
Another devastating Victorian burn!
- Answers magazine (1890)
- Answers magazine (1890)
- Answers magazine (1890)
A savage mid-Victorian burn!
- Wit and Humour (1860)
- Wit and Humour (1860)
"Good night, and goodbye, Miss Annabel. I leave here tomorrow morning early."
"Oh, Mr. Du Fere, I *am* so sorry."
"Indeed. You are very kind. I had no idea that—"
"No, of course not. I mean we shall have no one to laugh at when you have gone."
- Fun For All (1880)
"Oh, Mr. Du Fere, I *am* so sorry."
"Indeed. You are very kind. I had no idea that—"
"No, of course not. I mean we shall have no one to laugh at when you have gone."
- Fun For All (1880)
This deliciously withering expression is how I imagine *all* of these Victorian burn jokes being delivered.
Ouch!
- Answers magazine (1890)
- Answers magazine (1890)
Great character names in this burn!
- Answers magazine (1890)
- Answers magazine (1890)
This thread of Victorian burns is getting *very* long, but here’s another addition: https://twitter.com/victorianhumour/status/1159065937741582336?s=21
- Answers magazine (1903)
Ouch!
- Tit-Bits (1886)
- Tit-Bits (1886)
- Tit-Bits (1893)
- Answers (1889)
Wow.
- Answers magazine (1905)
- Answers magazine (1905)
Oops! I should’ve posted this joke here in the endless thread of Victorian burns.
https://twitter.com/victorianhumour/status/1248248229767999490?s=21 https://twitter.com/VictorianHumour/status/1248248229767999490
https://twitter.com/victorianhumour/status/1248248229767999490?s=21 https://twitter.com/VictorianHumour/status/1248248229767999490
