goons run amok

Sundog Rising!

Reflections on living the life literary by the Urban Sundog

The Goon Show Are Not Deaded!

WALLY STOTT:     History for Schools. Question one. How do you spell C-A-T?
SPIKE:         Cat!
HARRY:         (high pitched) Well-ll-l done!
WALLY STOTT:     Question two. Name two English Queens called Elizabeth.
SPIKE:         Jim!
(from: “Histories of Pliny the Elder”)

That is the sort of logic that endeared the Goon Show to me forevermore. If I aspire to no higher literary standard in my own writing, it is to think like Spike Milligan at his Spikiest.

The Goon Show was a vastly influential British BBC radio show in the 1950s, written by Spike Milligan, and performed by Spike, Peter Sellers, and Harry Secombe, with musical numbers by Max Geldray and the Ray Ellington Quartet, Announcer: Wally Stott. Without the Goon Show, there would never have been a Monty Python, and think what a dismal world that would be!

The combination of Milligan’s anarchic writing, Secombe’s irresistible and unfailing ebullience, and Sellers’s manic genius for voices and characterizations made the Goon Show unreproducible — though many have imitated. But there will never be another true Eccles — “Hahh-low dere” — Neddy Seagoon — “whatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhat” — or Bluebottle — “Thinks: waits for applause. Not a sausage.” Ying tong iddle i po.

Moriarty, Gritpype-Thynne, Major Bloodnok

Bluebottle, Neddie Seagoon, Eccles

Along with Spike’s Count Moriarty and Minnie Bannister, and Peter’s Henry Crun, Major Bloodnok, Gritpype-Thynne, Willyum and any other voice of any other nationality as might be required in the script -- "Gorblimey-o! El knock-o on the door-o!" -- the Goons offered an ensemble of comedy that was signature classic to any fan’s thinking as much as distinctly their own. It didn’t matter how many times they blew up Bluebottle — “You rotten swines, you!” — he’d always be pattering back next week to be deaded again. “I don’t like this game.”

I recently discovered two boxed sets of complete recordings of eight different episodes in the Winnipeg Public Library system, and have been delightfully regaling myself with everything from “The Dreaded Batter Pudding Hurler of Bexhill-On-Sea” to “The Jet-Propelled Guided NAAFI”. Old friends, old friends. When I was a kid, a friend of mine got sent weekly colour comics by his English granny which had a black and white Goon Show comic strip in the back. (I supposed even the English considered the Goons in colour as going too far!) Then my brother Jim (no, not a Queen of England) presented me with the first published volume of Goon Show Scripts when I was in high school. Then I tracked down some vinyl recordings when I was in University. Took me until my late fifties to get the full real deal on these CDs complete with Max and Ray, but it’s never too late for Milligan. Or Sellers, or Secombe.

Even though nothing could sound more effortless or lighter than the Goon Show, the show did have its darker side. It’s been stated in more than one critique that the utter anarchy of the show’s humour could only have come about as a result of the main creators’ wartime experiences. Harry was the most well-adjusted of the three, and kept it together the best. Spike was blown up in Italy during the war and never entirely recovered, suffering many years of anxiety and more than one breakdown afterwards, the first occurring while he was writing the show. And it has been written about Peter Sellers that he had no genuine personality of his own, so Bluebottle and company were as much the real Peter Sellers as he had to hold onto at times.

They did say that if Spike and Harry phoned in sick, Peter could do the show on his own, but you couldn’t say that for the other two. Not even Spike.

The Goon Show was never everyone’s cup of tea. Episodes that dissolved into little more than three supposedly grown men making indecipherable funny noises at each other isn’t every connoisseur’s idea of humour. Or plot resolution. Although I might try it sometime.

“Yeeeee-unk lurghlurghlurgh eeeeeeeeeeee-yunnnnnnnnngh!”

Perhaps not here.

But the point is the next time you think life is too much, try thinking like a Goon. Things won’t improve, but you’ll suddenly be having a lot more fun.

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REALITY FICTION AND BEYOND!

This week:

Continuing The Twitchy Gal with Chapter Twenty-One posted on Monday and Chapter Twenty-Two coming on Friday, October 24th at:

http://realficone.blogspot.ca/

Patrick’s day doesn’t get any better, Professor Krotos goes on the hunt, and Guinness is what!?