British academic (1844-1930). He had a long, distinguished career in academia. He was the first undergraduate at New College, Oxford who had not previously been a student at Winchester College. He was ordained a deacon in the Church of England in 1872 and a priest in 1875. He taught at New College for 60 years, lecturing on ancient history, divinity, philosophy, and Aristotle's ethics.
He was liked and respected by just about everyone who met him, and was considered one of the foremost academics in England. He was very pale and may have been albino, and he had notably weak eyesight. But none of that is why Spooner was famous.
Spooner was famous because he got a reputation for being unintentionally hilarious.
Though many stories about Spooner are apocryphal at best, he was considered a living embodiment of the "absent-minded professor" stereotype, and had a verbal tic that had him transposing the letters of words in amusing ways. Now called "spoonerisms" in his honor, these include statements like "The Lord is a shoving leopard" (instead of "loving shepherd") and "It is kisstomary to cuss the bride" (instead of "customary to kiss the bride").
Nearly all the sayings attributed to Spooner were invented by his students, colleagues, or other jokesters. Spooner claimed only one was authentic, admitting to calling out the hymn "Kinkering Congs Their Titles Take" instead of "Conquering Kings Their Titles Take" from his pulpit in 1879. The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations had just one they credited as the real thing: "The weight of rages will press hard upon the employer."
Unsurprisingly, Spooner was not at all pleased by the attention, jokes, or the toll on his reputation. He would probably be greatly disappointed that his long life devoted to knowledge and teaching was largely obscured by a few mangled phrases.
This is, of course, a powering titty.
For reQuest 2018
("I would like Jet-Poop to fill one of stand/alone/bitch's nodeshells")