Bunbury

[JellySlice]

Who or what is Bunbury?

From jeeves and wooster isn't it? A made up character who is used as an excuse or to take the blame. I need to Google...

Bunbury was a fictitious person in the importance of being earnest - whenever our hero wanted to get out of an unwanted social engagement he would claim to have to be visiting his sick relative Bunbury.

Hence the rediscovery of hitherto unknown second wave feminist Germaine Bunbury, to indicate to posters that a thread may in fact constitute an unwelcome social occasion they might want to avoid.

The original is Importance of Being Ernest by Oscar Wilde, not Jeeves and Worcester. He was Algernon's alibi when he wanted to leave town - 'have to go and visit my poor sick friend Bunbury.'

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That's right. Alas poor bunbury dies...

Its from "The Importance of Being Ernest" by Oscar Wilde. A made up person who you use as an excuse to get out of doing something you don't want to do, for example "I can't come to dinner with you tonight, I really must visit poor old Bunbury in hospital".

The reason I initially suggested the term, in addition to the obvious, was this line.

“My dear fellow, the truth isn’t quite the sort of thing one tells to a nice, sweet, refined girl. What extraordinary ideas you have about the way to behave to a woman!”

Glad someone has asked this question! I 'got' what it meant from the instances I'd seen it but didn't know of its origin and it's been driving me mad (kept trying to Google it and naturally, that got me nowhere). Thanks!

Doh! Of course! Now I get it.