Talk:One-upmanship

Relation to similar concept
This idea is a development of the Black Cat Bastard concept which was described by David Winston and developed by David Caton Roberts 86.15.101.235 (talk) 13:38, 1 January 2009 (UTC)

Canadian reference removed
I have looked up the reference to the use of "one-upmanship" in the Canadian Parliament in 1903 and I did not find the word used in the place cited. Therefore I have removed them. The removed sentence and footnote are as follows:

"Exactly when the term originated is unknown; several examples are known from the early 1900s.[1] See Debates: Official Report, 1903, 6: 6115, Canadian Parliament, House of Commons."

Page 6115 of the 1903 debates is readable online here http://parl.canadiana.ca/view/oop.debates_HOC0903_03/496?r=0&s=3 - as can be plainly seen, the term "one-upmanship" nor any related term appears on this page. -   Metalello    talk 19:35, 7 April 2019 (UTC)

Un-cited stuff
Have removed the following uncited stuff pending corresponding citations, inline or otherwise:

Have reinstated the material removed by above, as the editor in question obviously doesn't know his stuff, nor how to strut it either! AnchorBot (talk) 11:01, 29 September 2014 (UTC)

Fictional characters with one-upmanship

 * The character Topper from the comic strip Dilbert is a one-upper.


 * The character Clem from the comic strip Rose is Rose is a one-upper.


 * Jon Lovitz's character, Master Thespian, on Saturday Night Live in a haughty actor who engages in theatrical one-upmanship.


 * In the film The Prestige, Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale portray the characters, Robert Angier and Alfred Borden, illusionists who engage in a battle of competitive one-upmanship.


 * The short films, The Last Trick, by Jan Svankmajer, and One Man Band, released by Pixar, both deal with one-upmanship.

--Technopat (talk) 10:34, 20 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Kristen Wiig's character, Penelope, on Saturday Night Live is an egomaniac who compulsively one-ups everyone around her.

Joneses?
Should there be some mention of "keeping up with the Joneses" in this article? It seems a quintessential example of one-upsmanship. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.190.218.69 (talk) 10:06, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

Up vs. Ups
I did Google searches today, and there seem to be more hits for "one-upsmanship" -"one-upmanship" than vice versa. I thought it was a canonical example of the connective "s" in compound words. --24.130.210.201 (talk) 21:13, 6 August 2011 (UTC)

Psychology????
I suppose so, but you must remember that the book was intended as HUMOUR! Its inclusion as a psychology stub is questionable. Will Wodehouse or Saki or Bierce be defined as social history? 80.222.132.98 (talk) 21:15, 29 March 2010 (UTC)

My prime example of Wikipedia one-upmanship was removed! I bet you feel one-up
My addition read as follows: "The cat and mouse game between Wikipedia vandals and genuine users reverting changes can be considered a form of one-upmanship: a systematic and conscious practice of "creative intimidation", in which vandals can be one-up upon defacing a page, and moderators can be one-up when they use their elevated Wikipedia Laissez-Passer status to remove the vandalism." —Preceding unsigned comment added by 157.193.6.129 (talk) 21:42, 8 April 2011 (UTC)

It's not about the books, or the man who wrote them
The term has been used since (at least) 1903. So why does this article read like a review of Stephen Potter's work? He's not the progenitor of the word, although he may have popularised it. The article gets quite out of hand, the following two lines have no relation to the concept whatsoever! Weasel words, fluff, you name it - it's there. "'Potter's unprincipled principles apply to almost any possession, experience or situation, deriving maximum undeserved rewards and discomforting the opposition. The 1960 film School for Scoundrels and the 2006 film School For Scoundrels were satiric portrayals of how to use Potter's ideas.'" Tomásdearg92 (talk) 02:22, 13 February 2014 (UTC)

One upping
I think one upping, one upmanship comes from the medieval term that allowed certain factions once a year to mark swans with notches on the beak, those that weren't marked then became property of the king or queen who was reigning at the time. This was actually called Swan upping and I think it's feasible that it's be affected by dialect or pronunciation over time. MattBFC (talk) 20:42, 20 November 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20090907172010/http://www.vqronline.org/articles/1993/autumn/lowrey-timelessness/ to http://www.vqronline.org/articles/1993/autumn/lowrey-timelessness/

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