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Mind your language

Why twerking sounds so stupid

Blame Widow Twankey. And the Beggar's Opera. And J.R.R. Tolkien

14 December 2013

9:00 AM

14 December 2013

9:00 AM

The Widow Twankey first appeared on stage in 1861. At that time daily papers listed on Boxing Day dozens of novelty-stuffed pantomimes. But as far as I can make out, Aladdin, or, The Wonderful Scamp, in which the widow, played by James Rogers, made her entrance, was not a Christmas pantomime but a burlesque, for which the Strand theatre was celebrated.

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