A statement in another thread about some “pre Python” humour reminds me that manny peoples are missing out on enjoying some of the best irreverant, surreal, and plain silly British humour ever broadcast.
The Goon Show was a BBC Radio program with Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe, Spike Milligan, and Wallace Greenslade that lead the way for such TV shows as Monty Python’s Flying Circus and The Benny Hill Show. Filled with surreal, zany, and irreverant humour, it was often quite cerebral. If a skit from the Python boys or Benny was memorable, it’s likely that it was a rework or an expansion of an original Goony skit.
So… any time someone looks at an old British work, and marvels at how “Pythonesque” it was, remember that there was already a precedent for such odd moments of humour, since the Goons went on the air in 1951.
And while one can get a sence of their amazing humour by reading the scripts, listening to a recording is obviously the best way to enjoy this show. That way, the timing and multiple characters speaking at once is conveyed.
Trust me, these guys were so funny your head will fall off.
I can’t forget the Goon Show since Mum, Dad and my uncle who I rarely saw all quoted TGS with a frequency that makes even the nerdiest Python-quoter (that may be me) look restrained.
*Bluebottle: What time is it Eccles?
Eccles: Err, just a minute. I’ve got it written down on a piece of paper. A nice man wrote the time down for me this morning.
Bluebottle: Ooooh, then why do you carry it around with you Eccles?
Eccles: Welll, um, if a anybody asks me the time, I can show it to dem.
Bluebottle: Wait a minute Eccles, my good man.
Eccles: What is it, fellow?
Bluebottle: It’s writted on this bit of paper, what is eight o’clock, is writted.
Eccles: I know that, my good fellow. That’s right, um, when I asked the fella to write it down, it was eight o’clock.
Bluebottle: Well then. Supposing when somebody asks you the time, it isn’t eight o’clock?
Eccles: Well den, I don’t show it to 'em.
Bluebottle: Ooohhh.
Eccles: [smacks lips] yeah.
Bluebottle: Well how do you know when it’s eight o’clock?
Eccles: I’ve got it written down on a piece of paper.
Bluebottle: Ohh, I wish I could afford a piece of paper with the time written on it.
Eccles: Oohhhh.
Bluebottle: 'Ere! Eccles?
Eccles: Yah?
Bluebottle: Let me hold that piece of paper to my ear would you? ‘Ere. This piece of paper ain’t goin’
Eccles: What? I’ve been sold a forgery.
Bluebottle: No wonder it stopped at eight o’clock.
Eccles: Oh dear.
Bluebottle: You should get one of them tings my Grandad’s got.
Eccles: Oooohhh.
Bluebottle: His firm give it to him when he retired.
Eccles: Oooohhh.
Bluebottle: It’s one of dem tings what it is that wakes you up at eight o’clock, boils the kettil, and pours a cuppa tea.
Eccles: Ohhh yeah. What’s it called? Um.
Bluebottle: My Grandma.
Eccles: Ohh. Ohh, wait a minute. How does she know when it’s eight o’clock?
Bluebottle: She’s got it written down on a piece of paper. *
I know the Goons are considered great, but they never had any presence on US radio, so even Americans of that time have never heard of them.
Monty Python is better known because PBS started showing their shows in the early 70s. Nothing like that was done for the Goons (there barely was a PBS when they were active, and US radio was almost entirely music programming).
As I mentioned in the hijack of the Beethoven thread, I’ve heard of the Goon Show but have never seen it, probably because it hasn’t been broadcast in the U.S the way Python has.
I asked over in the other thread–maybe one of you Goonatics here can answer: Did they ever have a sketch similar to the Monty Python “Jerusalem/Buying a Mattress” sketch and the scene in Help! where the Beatles, and eventually a crowd of people, sing the Ode to Joy to pacify a tiger? These two have always struck me as remarkably similar and I’d be interested to know if there was an earlier antecedent to both.
Yeah, I, an American, lucked into cassettes from a Scottish friend of mine back in the 70s. She recently sent me a DVD of the few (including the newest) TV specials, but it won’t play in my player and my computer with the DVD drive is down, I’m using my old dinosaur right now. Crap.
As for that particular scenario you mention, it very much does ring a bell with me, but I’ll have to post a specific yes or no at some future time, since I don’t know which group of cassettes to search for it. Sorry.
And to the manny peoples who remember the show, thanks. You bring a smile to my bum. What time is it?