Hi,

You can catch some funny bits from the Goons on the net ... most famous are some really good bits here and there ... some goon show bits.

1. What Time is It? - Bluebottle and Eccles discuss how to tell what time it is.

2. Shelled - More than once, and specially in the Dreaded Pudding Hurler story, are the jokes about ... and the original design that had the joke continuing and if you laugh, you will miss part 2 or 3!

3. Classic! - Six Charlies In Search of An Author. One of the best Goon shows ever, beautifully crafted and written, with the funniest and weirdest twists ever. Just hearing it now, it is still very good!

4. Insane -- The Last Tram -- The House of Teeth -- The Canal -- President Fred ... all of them seminal shows that border not only on the surrealistic, but on the crazy and the best satire around.

5. Out There -- The Great Statue Debate ... Hyde Park? Where's that?

6. Funny and Weird -- China Story -- The Last Tram -- Tales of Men's Shirts

Spike Milligan did a whole bunch of books ... and it is worth reading all his books about the WW2 and how he met Peter and Harry, in Algeria of all places while going after the bonde German guy! The stories are nutz! His stories are not only poignant, but also neat and entertaining. After that he did many children's books, and there are several LP's of him reading these stories with a live audience of kids, and he is really good with them!

Peter Sellers also did a few LP's of his own, and most of it was satirical stuff that featured him playing an instrument or two, and drumming. There are some great bits here ... like him at the pub ... crossing the street ... and many more. It kinda tells you that for this guy, comedy had absolutely nothing to do with being funny to anyone, but that it was really just an extension of his internal mind seeing these things happen, which is the CLUE for his really good acting ... he can follow it and have a story on it ... Steve Martin only had moments and gags by comparison!

Even funnier, if you never have seen it ... get the movie "After The Fox" ... and enjoy a madman at work, turning Vittorio de Sica into a crazy director. The film is magnificent and shot just like the story would! But the bits in it, are histerical ... and the timing ... ... make sure you replay the bingo bit a few times ... absolutely off the wall timing! But the subtle and satirical side of it ... what we doing ? ... Tony my dear, in this scene we do nothing! Do you get the significance? Nothing! Absolutely nothing!

Steve would never be able to tell you to dream that!

Have fun!

Moshkiae


Spike Milligan did a whole bunch of books ... and it is worth reading all his books about the WW2 and how he met Peter and Harry, in Algeria of all places while going after the bonde German guy! The stories are nutz! His stories are not only poignant, but also neat and entertaining. After that he did many children's books, and there are several LP's of him reading these stories with a live audience of kids, and he is really good with them!

Oh yeah, I have all the war diary books Pedro. I re-read them every few years and some of it still has me in tears of laughter. And as you say, Spike manages to portray the serious side of war amid the humour. His whole character and personality is laid bare for all to see in those memoirs.
 
 

Even funnier, if you never have seen it ... get the movie "After The Fox" ... and enjoy a madman at work, turning Vittorio de Sica into a crazy director. The film is magnificent and shot just like the story would! But the bits in it, are histerical ... and the timing ... ... make sure you replay the bingo bit a few times ... absolutely off the wall timing! But the subtle and satirical side of it ... what we doing ? ... Tony my dear, in this scene we do nothing! Do you get the significance? Nothing! Absolutely nothing!

I haven't seen it Pedro, but on your recommendation I've just ordered it from Amazon. Looks like a Sellers gem from what you've said.
 
 
Out of interest, have you seen The Bed-Sitting Room? Written by Spike (originally as a play) and starring a host of British comic (and striaght) actors, it's delightfully and quintessentially Milligan surrealism at its best. To give you an idea of the talent on show, here's the cast list from Wiki:

• Rita Tushingham as Penelope
• Dudley Moore as Police Sergeant
• Harry Secombe as Shelter Man
• Arthur Lowe as Father
• Roy Kinnear as Plastic Mac Man
• Spike Milligan as Mate
• Ronald Fraser as The Army
• Jimmy Edwards as Nigel
• Michael Hordern as Bules Martin
• Peter Cook as Police Inspector
• Ralph Richardson as Lord Fortnum of Alamein
• Mona Washbourne as Mother
• Richard Warwick as Alan
• Frank Thornton as The BBC
• Dandy Nichols as Mrs Ethel Shroake
• Jack Shepherd as Underwater Vicar
• Marty Feldman as Nurse Arthur

Marvellous stuff!

Yes Peter Sellers was hilarous.
Most of his works are still funny today, and have stood the test of time.

(Steve Martin's Clouseau was completley devoid of humour. The Clouseau humour is quite different to Steve Martin's slapstick style, and he clearly did not 'get it' at all. 
I don't know what they were thinking of when they cast him).

My favourite Sellers film is 'The Party'.
It is priceless!

Hi,

Out of interest, have you seen The Bed-Sitting Room? Written by Spike (originally as a play) and starring a host of British comic (and striaght) actors, it's delightfully and quintessentially Milligan surrealism at its best. To give you an idea of the talent on show, here's the cast list from Wiki: ...

And now, it is time for the news.

One of my favorite stories, books and films of all. It is not for everyone, but its darkness, is almost too precious to be appreciated, specially by American audiences, who don't get it, and do not understand the (somewhat) freedom that English comedians and writers have to satirize the government .... (I RESIGN!) ... which in America, immediately gets you a massive Scarlet Letter in the media and fired from your job.

It's sad, malicious and horrific!

At least in England we know that the Queen even said that she would never give Spike an OBE ... and of course, no one remembers Spike proposing to Diana, and pulling Goon lines on her ... which didn't work, of course.

Prince Charles, btw, is the number one Goon fan in the world and has the complete everything, and was one of the folks that sat in on the recordings, and it is believed that he even has the platters for some of the Micahel Bentine stuff. But he won't say anything, because his mother HATES the Goons, and trashed them several times in her own "witty" manner! It's been said that the reason why he will never be King, is because he would make the 3 Goons Honorary Members of his cabinet! ... of course, that wold be a serious problem now, and would look funny and weird ... but the idea would still hold, I bet!

Steve Martin is a pretty good banjo player.

That's all I got.

jamesg1213


Steve Martin is a pretty good banjo player.

'Normal' or 'One-String'

Especially in some Pink Panther movies Sellers is so high above the rest,
that it's annoying. The rest of the humour/characters are cheap slapstick, and Sellers moves in a level of his own. Party is one of my favourites.

Kalle Rantaaho


Especially in some Pink Panther movies Sellers is so high above the rest,
that it's annoying. The rest of the humour/characters are cheap slapstick, and Sellers moves in a level of his own. Party is one of my favourites.

haven't seen it Pedro, but on your recommendation I've just ordered it from Amazon. Looks like a Sellers gem from what you've said.

 
It is my favorite PS film. As an actor, you put this character, next to the one in Being There, and then Dr. Strangelove, and then any of the Goon characters (Dennis Bloodknock would never make his appearance at an awards show but hercules Gritpype Thinne and Moriarty would!), and you can see what his acting is all about ... and then when you catch the stuff on the LP's it is even more clear ... it's the little story that is being told ... be it with sound effects or music or what not ... in Peter's mind, film, theater or radio ... it didn't matter!
 
Now you know why I wanted a few more sound effects on the CHB stuff to help interpret things even better ... and make slight changes (very slight ... with feathers only!) here and there to make it funnier ... and more entertaining.