In this week’s NOW Magazine (one of Toronto’s weekly alt-newspapers) there’s a feature on local comedians who’ve made it big. One of the comedians, Mark McKinney, says that the following is his all-time favourite joke:
“I think it was one of Monty Python’s. There’s an English game show with a panel of distinguished guests and a contestant gets to ask six questions to guess a word. A little old lady’s put in the booth. The announcer says the secret word is “horsecock.” The little old lady’s first question is: “Can I put it in my mouth?” A distinguished guest says, “Yes, you can put it in your mouth. You now have five questions left.” The lady says, “Is it horsecock?””
I’ve tried googling without any success (who thought horsecock would be so popular? ) so I turn to you for help in locating the source of this joke.
The way I heard it was a dinner game at Buckingham Palace and the little old lady was either the Queen or Q Mother, if that makes searching any easier.
A variation of this story was featured in one episode of the second series of The Office (original, Brit version). However, in The Office it was intentionally used as a joke that was already well-known, at least to some of the characters. I have no idea where it came from before that. (And not that it matters, but I personally had never met it before The Office.)
To be fair to McKinney, he did say he thought it was one of Monty Python’s. Funnily enough, the joke bears a certain resemblance to a KITH skit where, in a foreign language game show, the contestants are required to handle an object they can’t see and guess what it is. They all speak some sort of foreign gibberish language and just generally act slightly off-kilter. McKinney, wearing black-rimmed glasses and a mismatched suit, is given a piece of raw meat to handle. He gropes it for a while in a hushed and concentrated silence, and finally says “Ese eine meat?” Everyone explodes with foreign gibberish joy because he guessed right.
I absolutely adore KITH, but I’ve found that the above sentiment is pretty close to universal for their stuff. I can literally end up on the floor if I start remembering stuff like Chicken Lady or “These are the Daves I know, I know” or Gavin, but it doesn’t translate well to description.
) so I turn to you for help in locating the source of this joke.