What Ho! This Twitter thread of PG Wodehouse’s best and funniest lines is a spiffing treat for fans of the comedy genius
What better way to escape for a moment from the horrors of the current news cycle than by reading a compilation of the best and funniest lines written by PG Wodehouse?
More than 50 years after his death, his Jeeves and Wooster books still sell fantastically well because he was a true master of comedy writing and a major influence on other writers such as Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett.
Thanks to the Wodehouse fan account, Wodehouse Tweets, for asking the following question to their followers.
What is the single funniest line Wodehouse ever wrote? No wrong answers, only joy.
— Wodehouse Tweets (@inimitablepgw) February 28, 2026
The replies were absolutely tip-top. We’ve selected 23 of our favourites.
1.
“I was left in no doubt about the severity of the hangover when a cat stamped into the room.”
— Peter Jackson (@peterajackson) February 28, 2026
2.
‘Into the face of the young man who sat on the terrace of the Hotel Magnifique at Cannes there had crept a look of furtive shame, the shifty hangdog look which announces that an Englishman is about to speak French.’
— Alexander Larman (@alexlarman) February 28, 2026
3.
Wooster to Jeeves, (who had advised Wooster against wearing some outfit): “But many chaps have asked for details of my tailor.”
Jeeves: “Doubtless in order to avoid him, sir”— Dawid Konotey-Ahulu (@Dawid1) February 28, 2026
4.
A Scotsman with a grievance is not easily mistaken for a ray of sunshine
— Misha Voikhansky (@MVoikhansky) February 28, 2026
5.
“He was a tubby little chap who looked as if he had been poured into his clothes and had forgotten to say 'when!’”
— WFC (@wheatfrom) February 28, 2026
6.
It was a confusion of ideas between him and one of the lions he was hunting in Kenya, that caused A. B. Spottsworth to make the obituary column. He thought the lion was dead, and the lion thought it wasn't".
— swervy curtis (@CurtisSwervy) February 28, 2026
7.
“At the age of eleven or thereabouts women acquire a poise and an ability to handle difficult situations which a man, if he is lucky, manages to achieve somewhere in the later seventies.”
— James Anderson (@Nipper911) February 28, 2026
8.
“I could see that, if not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled.”
— MJ Simpson (@mjsimpsonfilms) February 28, 2026
9.
“It was one of those still evenings you get in the summer, when you can hear a snail clear its throat a mile away.”
— Ian Acheson 🇬🇧☘️ (@NotThatBigIan) February 28, 2026
10.
“What ho!" I said.
"What ho!" said Motty.
"What ho! What ho!"
"What ho! What ho! What ho!"
After that it seemed rather difficult to go on with the conversation.
— Manu Bhardwaj (@manubhardwaj) February 28, 2026
11.
"Honoria, you see, is one of those robust, dynamic girls with the muscles of a welter-weight and a laugh like a squadron of cavalry charging over a tin bridge."
— Toddington (@HXValley) February 28, 2026
12.
What are the chances of a cobra biting Harold, Jeeves?"
"Slight, I should imagine, sir. And in such an event, knowing the boy as intimately as I do, my anxiety would be entirely for the snake.— simoncwrightson – A Tyke 🚜🌲🎗️ (@simoncwrightson) February 28, 2026