Piece of paper.

[Grumpi]

Whenever I read the script of an extract from the Goon Show as broadcast on BBC Radio I am invariably amused but perhaps that is because I am hearing the words spoken in my head by the original cast members.
I wonder the humour comes from the unexpected diversions in the script or the images of the characters involved.
What do you think of the following extract of a Goon Show classic conversation between Peter Sellers as Bluebottle and Spike Milligan as Eccles?

Sound of clock chiming three times.
Bluebottle: What time is it, Eccles?
Eccles: Just a minute, I’ve got it written down here on a piece of paper. A nice man wrote the time down for me this morning.
Bluebottle: Oh. Then why do you carry it around with you, Eccles?
Eccles: Well if anybody asks me the time, I can show to them.
Bluebottle: Wait a minute, Eccles my good man.
Eccles: What is it fellow?
Bluebottle: It is writted on this piece of paper, that It is eight o’clock. It is writted.
Eccles: I know that, my good fellow. That’s right. When I asked the fellow to write it down it was eight o’clock.
Bluebottle: Well then, supposing when someone asks you the time, it isn’t eight o’clock
Eccles: Then I don’t show it to them.
Bluebottle: So how you do know when it’s eight o’clock
Eccles: I’ve got it written down on a piece of paper.
Bluebottle: Oh I wish I could afford a piece of paper with the time written on. ‘Ere Eccles Let me hold that piece of paper to my ear would you?
Pause
Bluebottle: ‘Ere, this piece of paper ain’t going.
Eccles: What! I’ve been sold a forgery.
Bluebottle: No wonder it’s stopped at eight o’clock.
Eccles: Oh Dear.
Bluebottle: You should one of them things my Grandad’s got.
Eccles: Oh?
Bluebottle: His firm give it to him when he retired.
Eccles: Oh.
Bluebottle: It’s one of the things what it is that wakes you up at eight o’clock, boils the ketyule and pours a cup of tea
Eccles: Oh yeah. What’s it called
Bluebottle: My Grandma.
Eccles: Oh. 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.

[kiloran]

Absolutely one of the all-time greats
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tjHlFPTwVk

--kiloran

[stewamax]

Ah Eccles (aka Spike) - a total fruitcake!

[AndyPandy]

A lot of the humour comes from the circular arguments:

Bluebottle: Well then, supposing when someone asks you the time, it isn’t eight o’clock
Eccles: Then I don’t show it to them.
Bluebottle: So how you do know when it’s eight o’clock
Eccles: I’ve got it written down on a piece of paper.

You know it's nonsense, but equally you can believe that there are real people out there that could have similar arguments about other false concepts they really believe in to the frustration of whoever they are discussing/arguing with.

As a sketch it also works because it wraps around itself on the last line, taking you neatly back to the beginning.

Wonder if (with a tidying up of the words) it would have worked as a Mel Smith Griff Rhys-Jones Head to Head sketch. I think it's good enough to translate.

If anyone's interested, Radio 4 Extra regularly airs Goon Show, Navy Lark, Hancock, Yes Minister et al reruns.

Another gem that has just finished on R4Extra is "It sticks out half a mile" which centres around what the Dad's Army lot were doing 3-4 years after they disbanded. Captain Mainwaring decides to buy and do up a pier. Unfortunately Arthur Lowe died after the pilot episode, but it was revised to have Pike and Hodges pick up the project. Not Croft and Perry but it does stay true to the characters.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=965V9nz7f8U

[Slarti]

Whenever I read the script of an extract from the Goon Show as broadcast on BBC Radio I am invariably amused but perhaps that is because I am hearing the words spoken in my head by the original cast members.
I wonder the humour comes from the unexpected diversions in the script or the images of the characters involved.

"He's fallen in the water!"

A funny line? Not at all, unless you hear it in the voice of Little Jim. And know the running gag.


Slarti

[stevensfo]

What do you think of the following extract of a Goon Show classic conversation between Peter Sellers as Bluebottle and Spike Milligan as Eccles?[quote][/quote]

This is from 'The Flea', one of the few episodes that I listened to from an old audio cassette but I never had as mp3. I wasn't even born when they were broadcasted and only heard them as a student in the early 80s. Like Monty Python, many sketches are forgettable but some are absolute classics.

Spike was a genius and Peter Sellers was brilliant with his voice.

One I still remember:

Bluebottle: "Oooooh Eccles, how come you got this dustbin all to yourself?"
Eccles: (proudly) "I got influence!"



Steve