The Goon Show was groundbreaking, Fist of Fun is one of my favourite all time shows. Now why can't we all just get along? ;-)

I understand the idea that the Goons is difficult to follow. I admit that when I listen to an entire episode I get lost, I always wondered if the fact everybody was very, very used to listening to radio back then is how such a difficult show became so popular.

But even though it's hard to understand in places now, it has moments of absolute genius. Who were the man and wife called, I've forgotten...but here are a couple of lines that have stuck in my head...

[SETTING: ON A SHIP]
WIFE: Where are you?

MAN: I'm over here in this rosewood piano.

It's conjuring those types of images that I really love about it. Pianos just pop out of nowhere.

That was probably Henry and Min.
As in "Heeennnrry?" "What's the matter, Min...?"

I recall hearing a few of those and similarly classic scenes, as 'Songs For Swinging Sellers' was popular in our house when growing up, as was Round The Horne. So, though I wasn't around for the Goon Show itself, all Sellers-related comedy and the like ('I'm All Right Jack', 'Heaven's Above', capped by 'Dr Strangelove, Or...' etc) was comedy gold.

Quote: Fred C Dobbs @ September 30 2013, 12:00 PM BST

That was probably Henry and Min.
As in "Heeennnrry?* "What's the matter, Min...?"

View original

Yis!

"Henrrrrry!"

"What's the matter, Min?"

"The dog wants to go out."

"How do you know Min?"

"He's got his hat and coat on."

Sellers and Milligan......what can I say? A play on "can you put the cat out?", never fails to make me laugh.

Shortly after Peter Sellers's death, my dad bought me (age 12) The Goon Show volume 3 LP. Lurgi Strikes Britain, and The Great International Christmas Pudding! It changed me for life. I started collecting radio comedies - Hancock, Round the Horne, Steptoe, ISIRTA etc.

Quote: sglen @ September 30 2013, 11:03 AM BST

The Goon Show was groundbreaking, Fist of Fun is one of my favourite all time shows. Now why can't we all just get along? ;-)

I understand the idea that the Goons is difficult to follow. I admit that when I listen to an entire episode I get lost, I always wondered if the fact everybody was very, very used to listening to radio back then is how such a difficult show became so popular.

But even though it's hard to understand in places now, it has moments of absolute genius. .

View original

I'm glad you raised the Goons / Fist of Fun (sglen) as I have no desire to bandy words again with someone who descends into crudities to "make a point"(?), so that I can raise the question of will FOF still be remembered in over 50 years' time? I say no, or least highly unlikely.

This is not an old fart like me who is clinging on to 50s comedy - in each generation there is some young person discovering The Goons - I understand that the Goon Show App. Soc. have regular new membership from youngsters, and if you read the posts on this site, there are a number of "my Father introduced me to the Goons, and I was hooked"

YES! Get past the funny voices and you will find that it is quite subversive and ground breaking by leading the way for satire in comedy, becoming the "Grandfather" of Python, ISIRTA etc. etc.

1950s comedy was the cosy family orientated type that was restricted by the BBC's notorious Green Book, which banned so many references to sex, gender etc etc but Milligan and Co deftly got around this and brought a breath of fresh air to British comedy, the banner of which was taken up by Round the Horne and beyond.

Some political references would perhaps be lost on some people today, just as shows like ITMA are on me - different generation; but that is not to deny that The Goons was and still is one of the finest comedy shows to come out of the BBC.

And I repeat - will FOF be remembered and STILL be followed in over 50 years' time? Of course not.

To be honest in years to come frustrated GCSE students will study Shakespeare's comedies and despairingly cry, "but it isn't funny."

There's a reason Monty Python and Round the Horne will be remade from time to time or repeated.

And another that the Goons will turn up on the "fag end of the budget" slot on Radio 4 Extra.

By all means enjoy it, if you do. Takes all sort to make a world. And comedy has always had its ugly sibling of sentiment. If Spike Milligan hadn't turned out to be a genius it would have been forgotten. As it is, if you're going to be misty eyed why not remember Q or his excellent autobiographies?

Got some volumes of the radio show. Groundbreaking comedy and massively imfluential.

My old landlady had The Last Goon Show of All on LP which was a one off in 1972 I think. Would have to see if I can get hold of it as I loved it.

"It was indeed Harry Secombe hauling his huge Welsh body up the A1. All 4 lanes are blocked and motorists are advised to take an alternative route, like France"

I happen to think this is one of the most wonderful pieces of comedy writing there has ever been.

Two idiots talking rubbish, but with such wonderful logic in the writing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tjHlFPTwVk

I still listen to The Goon Show and Chumbawamba. I am having a tough time getting mainland Chinese to comprehend, let alone enjoy, the Goons. Whereas they have taken to Chumbawamba, particularly their more folk-oriented tunes of their final period. Will have to find some old Pink Panther films with Chinese subtitles and work backwards.

Quote: Guilbert @ 16th January 2014, 1:59 PM GMT

I happen to think this is one of the most wonderful pieces of comedy writing there has ever been.

Two idiots talking rubbish, but with such wonderful logic in the writing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tjHlFPTwVk

View original

Thanks Guilbert, that put a smile on my face...

Quote: Guilbert @ 16th January 2014, 1:59 PM GMT

I happen to think this is one of the most wonderful pieces of comedy writing there has ever been.

Two idiots talking rubbish, but with such wonderful logic in the writing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tjHlFPTwVk

View original

What can I say - one of the best pieces of Milligan's writing from The Goon Show, with Sellers......superb.
(Video is quite good too!)

Eccles and Bluebottle had some brilliant pieces together, and in a similar vein is the "Red Sack, Blue Sack" routine from the episode "Foiled By President Fred", where there is some confusion as to which sack has the real money in it, which I cannot find on YouTube, it is quite a lengthy routine involving not just Bluebottle and Eccles, but here is the conclusion of it:-

Bluebottle:
Has he gone, Eccles?

Eccles:
Yeah! Ha ha...

Bluebottle:
Eehe, now we both have sacks.

Eccles:
Say that again.

Bluebottle:
The red one and the blue one. We have both sacks. This is a good game you know, that, what is. This is what is liking this game. Eccles, which sack has the real money?

Eccles:
The blue one.

Bluebottle:
Then we will split it fifty-fifty. You take that nice red one and I'll have this rotten stinking old blue one.

Eccles:
Fine, fine.

Bluebottle:
And you're quite sure you're not colour-blind, ain't you?

Eccles:
Oh no, I'm not colour blind.

Bluebottle:
Oh. Well, goodbye Enccles.

FX:
[Door shuts]

Eccles:
Goodbye, Redbottle.

Quote: Tuumble @ 15th January 2014, 5:45 PM GMT

My old landlady had The Last Goon Show of All on LP which was a one off in 1972 I think. Would have to see if I can get hold of it as I loved it.

"It was indeed Harry Secombe hauling his huge Welsh body up the A1. All 4 lanes are blocked and motorists are advised to take an alternative route, like France"

View original

Umm, I thought it was available on DVD as it is great to see them "at work" - I'm sure I have it somewhere in my mega collection, but maybe I transferred from a VHS tape of the original show - will have to dive in and update my index!
Quite a few VHS tapes available on Ebay, however, the CD is here:-

See Amazon product listing

We ought to give a huge pat on the back to the BBC for shows like the Goons.

While the show seems rather "off the wall" nowadays it must have seemed like something from another planet back in the 1950s.

Even though the BBC at the time was a very "straight laced" organization they were still willing to give shows like The Goons time on the radio.

If we had only had private (advert driven) radio at the time then something like the Goons would never have seen the light of day.

Think about it, if you took away the BBC radio comedy shows, how many other radio comedy shows would we have left?

And of course the Goons was just one of hundreds of comedy radio and TV shows they have given us, from Round the Horne and I'm sorry I'll read that again, though to Hancock, Python, Steptoe, Porridge, Yes Minister, and so on and so on.

Thank you BBC.