“Truth is stranger than fiction…”

BYRON’S FAMOUS LINES: “‘Tis strange – but true; for truth is always strange;    Stranger than fiction.”        Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron; (1788-1824)          British poet         In his epic poem Don Juan (1819-1824)           The phrase “strange but true” dates back as least as far back as around 1599, when it was used by William Shakespeare in Act III, Scene IV of his play Macbeth. But Lord Byron’s poem Don Juan is credited as the origin of the proverbial saying “truth is stranger than fiction” and it has spawned many uses and variations since then.

THE TOP UNDERSTATEMENT OF THE 2016 PRIMARY CAMPAIGN: “This year’s election has a certain stranger than fiction quality to it.”        Anna Silman        American writer and poltiical journalist        In an article about the 2016 Presidential Primary campaign in the online magazine Salon        (Cartoon by Dan Wasserman.)

THE POLITICS AS USUAL QUOTE: “In politics, truce is stranger than friction.”         Evan Esar (1899–1995)        American humorist and author        In his book 20,000 Quips & Quotes (1995)

TWAIN’S “PUDD’NHEAD” VARIATIONS: “Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn’t.” “Truth is stranger than fiction—to some people, but I am measurably familiar with it.”        Mark Twain (1835-1910)        American humorist, journalist and novelist         Two of the “Pudd’nhead Wilson’s New Calendar” epigrams used at the beginning of chapters in Twain's 1897 travelogue Following the Equator (also known as More Tramps Abroad).

TWAIN’S POSTHUMOUS VARIATION: “Truth is more of a stranger than fiction.”         Another one of the many quips Mark Twain wrote about the subject of “truth”        This line was recorded by Twain in a notebook in 1898. It’s included in the posthumously-published collection of excerpts from his notebooks and journals, Mark Twain’s Notebook (1935).

THE PORTLANDIA PUBLIC ACCESS CHANNEL VERSION: “Public broadcasting is stranger than fiction.”         Description of a video posted on YouTube.com by “sryokan” that shows funny excerpts from Channel 11, the local public access channel in Portlandia, er, I mean Portland, Oregon.

THE CNN “SHOWBIZ TONIGHT” SCHTICK: “Tonight!…Are they really saving Michael Jackson’s brain? Did Jackson really try to rescue Lisa Ling’s sister from North Korea? The truth behind the Jackson stories that are stranger than fiction.”        A.J. Hammer         Former host of the CNN channel’s “Showbiz Tonight” segment        In a “news” piece about Michael Jackson aired on CNN, July 10, 2009. (I saw the piece and wrote down the quote, figuring that I’d eventually need another gonzo quote for this blog.)

*     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     

Comments? Corrections? Post them on the Famous Quotations Facebook Page.

Related reading, viewing and swag…