I put this quote in because someone pointed out that I had a very similar quote attributed (with slight variations) to both Groucho Marx and Mae West. The similar quote (you probably guessed it) was "Marriage is a wonderful institution, but who wants to live in an institution?"
When I tried to nail this down (the one about the institution), I found plenty of attributions to both Groucho Marx and Mae West. One website even said that Mae West said it in I'm No Angel; but if you look for quotes from that film (on Wikiquote, for example) I don't think you'll find it.
Barry Popik, on his website The Big Apple, is more convincing, giving a different source: "[both Groucho Marx and Mae West] have been credited with the famous line, but there is no evidence to suggest that either originated it." He attributes it to an American silent film actor called Raymond Hitchcock – giving at least two citations from 1916. But I can find no other source that gives the same origin.
I did find several attributions, including BrainyQuote and QuoteDb, to another celebrated American wit: H. L. Mencken. But neither of them gives their source.
I'm beginning to think that all of these people may have made the quip at some point; but for me at least, The Big Apple's attribution is the most convincing. And if you ask in a quiz who said it, and expect the answer "Raymond Hitchcock", I would suggest that you're going to upset a few people.
Best to avoid the quote altogether, if you ask me, and use the Billy Connolly one. If you want a reliable source for this one, I give you The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (7th Edition, 2009). It's also on BrainyQuote – although as I've suggested above, Brainyquote is not necessarily infallible.
© Haydn Thompson 2017