What is the significance of the repetition of the word absurd in The Importance of Being Earnest?

The word “absurd” is used twelve times in The Importance Of Being Earnest. Primarily, the repetition of this word, and of the idea of absurdity, links to the comic tone of the play. The central comic conceit is Jack’s imaginary brother, Ernest, who is really an alibi for Jack’s own hedonistic impulses. One of the play’s other protagonists, Algernon, also pretends to have an imaginary friend, called Bunbury. Both Jack and Algernon go to what might seem ridiculous lengths to protect their own reputations, and this in turn leads to other comic, or absurd incidents in the play.
The play might also be read as a satire about the institutions, prejudices, and manners of Victorian England. Marriage, for example, is presented as an absurd institution, predicated not on love but on material concerns and social connections. Victorian morality is also satirized as absurdly rigid, hypocritical and pompous. Thus the repetition of the word “absurd” in the play points to the prevalence of the idea of absurdity in the Victorian institutions, prejudices, and manners that Wilde sets out to satirize.