April 11, 2001

3:51 PM

Harry Secombe passes at 79.I just saw the Peter Sellers bio on American Movie Classics the other day, and found out how important The Goon Show was in the history of comedy. A Hard Day's Night and Monty Python had their roots in this groundbreaking British radio show that ran from 1949-1960.
posted by aflakete (12 comments total)

Found out about Mr Secombe a couple of hours ago. Bear in mind that there are plenty of people over here in the UK who only really know him from "Highway". But he seemed like a cool enough guy.
It's kind of amazing that Spike Milligan is still alive.
posted by davidgentle at 4:12 PM on April 11, 2001

Goodnight, sweet Neddy. And say hallo to Grytpype-Thynne when you see him.

(Saw the Life of Python doc last night, and it was mentioned that the Milligan's Q5 TV series was a major goad to the Pythons as they prepared their debut.)
posted by retrofut at 4:38 PM on April 11, 2001

It's kind of amazing that Spike Milligan is still alive.

Well, he's managed to live longer than Harry Secombe, which he claimed to want to do, so Harry doesn't sing at his funeral.

I remember at some point going into the Kentwood Library, where I used to work, and seeing Walter, and talking about Secombe's health condition. It was amusing, because I'm sure everyone there thought he was a friend of ours or something (Walter and I are the only West Michigan Goon Show fans I know of)
posted by dagnyscott at 5:16 PM on April 11, 2001

Whatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhat!?

Harry Secombe was a great comedian with the narrowest range I've ever seen (heard).
posted by rodii at 6:55 PM on April 11, 2001

'Highway' was a truly terrible programme.

And The Goon Show hasn't aged very well. The clips on tv last night werent funny.

Sh1te
posted by insular at 5:02 AM on April 12, 2001

And The Goon Show hasn't aged very well.

I'd beg to differ. I think they're still funny, and I wasn't even around to hear them when they were first around, and I'm an American.
posted by dagnyscott at 5:58 AM on April 12, 2001

It was uneven, but its worst moments were better than almost anything else ever, and its best "The Dreaded Batter Pudding Hurler Of Bexhill-On-Sea" or "Foiled By President Fred", it was transcendent.

It was, of course, silly, and silly is one thing we must never be in these guarded and sarcastic times.
posted by rodii at 7:35 AM on April 12, 2001

Transcendent?

The Goon Show belongs in the Natural History museum. Dated, unfunny, pap.

The only goons are those who profess to like it.
posted by king kenny at 7:42 AM on April 12, 2001

I've heard long dialogues in shows where the humor is lost in the thickets of cottage character comedy (aargh, tortured by sitcoms once again). Not that Airplane, say, doesn't have its misfires, or the Firesign Theater its longeurs. "Pap," though, I find hard to find.

Buut hey, in the interests of dialogue and calibration, tell me, do you find Monty Python dated? Or Buster Keaton? Or Laurel and Hardy? The Marx Brothers? I'm not castigating (or entirely disagreeing -- Hope & Crosby's Road to Morocco is surprisingly boring, while Eddie Cantor films hold up well), I just want to know your opinion on these so I can better understand just what you're saying. Not so much a matter of disagreement as of differing emphases of definition.
posted by retrofut at 11:47 AM on April 12, 2001

The only goons are those who profess to like it.

Argh, my secret is revealed! I don't really like it, I just "profess" to like it.

Kenny? Fuck ya. Welcome to Metafilter.
posted by rodii at 12:01 PM on April 12, 2001

Hey king kenny, are you a troll?
posted by retrofut at 2:24 AM on April 14, 2001

p.s.: albeit a literate one.
posted by retrofut at 4:12 AM on April 14, 2001