I don’t remember which episode, it was certainly from the iconic early/middle 50’s era. Bluebottle, Eccles and (I think) Seagoon are going through some dark enclosed space, like underground or something. At one point, and relevant to nothing else before or after (as far as I could tell), Bluebottle stops and says “Oy, there’s someone straining in a dark corner over there!” Audience laughs, and then they continue as they were.
Since Bluebottle was supposed to be a rather stupid pre-adolescent of maybe 12-13 years old, he was prone to say things that were supposed to be a bit naughty for the time. I can think of maybe three possible meanings of that sentence, but they all seem pointless. Sykes and Milligan (the writers) were of course prone to off-the-wall dialogue but it usually has some joke or point to make. If this is a joke, I don’t get it. If there’s a point, I’m not seeing it.
I suspect a cultural or contemporary Brit reference that I as a mid-century American wouldn’t get. For example, it was some time after I first heard their puns on the word “bound” before I understood that the other meaning is “constipated,” not a common usage where I grew up.
So, any help? This has been in the back of my mind for a long time.
That’s one of them; the other two were straining to break free from being tied up, and just about to climax from masturbating (unlikely, but I thought of it).
So then how does that work as an aside in an otherwise unrelated scene? Why would someone be sitting visibly on a toilet in this underground place (sorry I don’t remember more precisely the location)?
No, sorry, I don’t remember, except that I’m pretty sure it was unrelated.
Here is one joke about “bound” that I remember, from the show about the Romans in early Britain.
“Bring in the prisoner. Is he bound?”
“Of his health I know not, sir.” (big laugh from audience)
When you say you’re a native English speaker, do you mean you’re British, or just that English is your first language (I speak English but of a somewhat different variety than Brits do)?
If they were underground somewhere, maybe it was a sewer? The guy they hear “straining” isn’t actually in there with them, but up above, in a bathroom?
Still not sure how it’s funny, but at least it’s thematically appropriate.
Not sitting on a toilet. The guy is just in the corner with his pants around his ankles squatting and taking a dump. It just indicates that the Underground or wherever they are is a really creepy and shitty (literally) place where some bum is taking a dump in public. It’s like seeing someone pissing against the wall.
Imagine they’re walking through the New York Subway in 1979 and they see someone taking a dump in the corner. It’s funny since it indicates how over-the-top run down the place is.
OK, that seems at least remotely plausible as a plot point, so to speak. I can see it would really help if I could remember the exact mise en scène. It’s too bad I can’t remember which episode it was in either.
After listening to it, I think the laughter comes mostly from Bluebottle’s literal description of every sound he hears, including something as abstract as “straining,” and the absurd delivery of the line.
I suppose you found that just by Googling. I never thought that some random Goon Show line would show up with Google hits. That’ll learn me, for next time. Thanks.
As for the big laugh, I think that’s why the line stuck with me, out of context. I couldn’t figure out why it was so funny to the audience, like there was some double meaning or something.
Yes. It is, or was, something you were either on the wavelength for, or not. Either you find the voices funny in themselves, or you don’t - and this was also the kind of catchphrase humour where people grew to expect the regular characters to turn up and would give them an extra welcome just for turning up, as it were (something to do with the memory of life in the 1940s?)
And “not making sense” was rather the point - radio lends itself to the surreal, because it’s so easy to get the audience to create the visuals for themselves (or, with the right, potential double entendres, make up their own jokes). But they did also slip in assorted more straightforward rude jokes that clearly by-passed the innocent ears of the BBC high-ups (they would regularly refer to a character named Hugh Jampton*, and I’m sure I remember a skit based loosely around espionage with agents’ codenames like The Pink Oboe and The Chocolate Starfish).
*Rhyming slang - there is a district on the outskirts of London called Hampton Wick…
It is back from the time when that sort of comedy was pretty radical in the uk. Basically comedy was falling over, and nothing scatalogical or sexual. The goons used a lot of actual funny innuendo in it.
The audience did how laugh at things which were unfunny. Spike decided to see if he could make a joke which wasn’t funny, and make it get laughs regularly just be repetition. Thus “little jim” was invented (or “leetlee jeeem”). Who only said “he’s fallen in the water” and the audience would love it every time.
This thread reminds me of the old music hall song Down Below.
When you’re working in the dark… down below,
Underneath St James’s Park… down below,
When you’re working in the dark, oh it isn’t half a lark,
When you’re working in the dark… down below
There is something in a sewer... down below,
That has a strange allure... down below.
