Waits for applause...not a sausage
April 5, 2008 3:04 AM Subscribe
The Goon Show was a popular and influential radio comedy produced by the BBC from 1951 - 1960, starring Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan and Harry Secombe.
Here, you can listen to it whenever you like.
If you haven't had enough punishment, you can watch them! With your eyes!
TheCase of the Mukkinese Battle Horn (1956)
The Runing, Jumping, and Standing Still Film(1959)
They reunited for in 1972 for The Last Goon Show of
All
If you haven't had enough punishment, you can watch them! With your eyes!
The
The Runing, Jumping, and Standing Still Film(1959)
They reunited for in 1972 for The Last Goon Show of
All
Yes. Flagged as awesome.
posted by chuckdarwin at 3:10 AM on April 5, 2008
posted by chuckdarwin at 3:10 AM on April 5, 2008
SHUT UP ECKLES!
Awesome stuff; my Dad listening to his BBC Goon Show tapes during my formative years probably had a profound impact on lots of things, not least of which my sense of humour and silliness.
posted by Chunder at 3:26 AM on April 5, 2008
Awesome stuff; my Dad listening to his BBC Goon Show tapes during my formative years probably had a profound impact on lots of things, not least of which my sense of humour and silliness.
posted by Chunder at 3:26 AM on April 5, 2008
The Jet Propelled NAAFI. We can be anywhere in the world with a cup of tea and a biscuit within five minutes of war breaking out.
posted by vbfg at 3:38 AM on April 5, 2008
posted by vbfg at 3:38 AM on April 5, 2008
oooOOooo!
posted by Pallas Athena at 6:16 AM on April 5, 2008
posted by Pallas Athena at 6:16 AM on April 5, 2008
Prince Charles is, was, such a fan that he and his navy buddies made a short amateur ripoff of the show featuring himself as Bluebottle. HRH Productions ("A Horroh Production"). Not bad, either, but my memory of it is faint and I can't find a link, alas.
posted by IndigoJones at 7:17 AM on April 5, 2008
posted by IndigoJones at 7:17 AM on April 5, 2008
Unmitigated genius... so much of British comedy since came from here.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 7:22 AM on April 5, 2008
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 7:22 AM on April 5, 2008
love it. So many memories of childhood are listening to these tapes on long car journeys. I think I'm turning into Henry Crun as I get older though...
posted by patricio at 8:38 AM on April 5, 2008
posted by patricio at 8:38 AM on April 5, 2008
*Enter lekvar, waits for audience applause, favorites awesome post by louche mustachio; not a sausage*
The Goon Show was probably a significant factor in the awkwardness of my adolescence, but I wouldn't have had it any other way.
posted by lekvar at 9:41 AM on April 5, 2008
The Goon Show was probably a significant factor in the awkwardness of my adolescence, but I wouldn't have had it any other way.
posted by lekvar at 9:41 AM on April 5, 2008
*curses inability to read the page title; still not a sausage*
posted by lekvar at 9:42 AM on April 5, 2008
posted by lekvar at 9:42 AM on April 5, 2008
Wow, it's clear that Monty Python's Flying Circus and The Firesign Theater are just imitations of this show.
posted by Dave Faris at 10:57 AM on April 5, 2008
posted by Dave Faris at 10:57 AM on April 5, 2008
"This is the man who's going to drink Loch Lomond for us."
posted by jokeefe at 11:39 AM on April 5, 2008 [1 favorite]
posted by jokeefe at 11:39 AM on April 5, 2008 [1 favorite]
I discovered the Firesign Theatre perhaps a decade before the Goon Show. On discovering the latter, I was floored at how much FT was inspired by them.
posted by zippy at 12:39 PM on April 5, 2008
posted by zippy at 12:39 PM on April 5, 2008
/old fart talking
My dad used to have a girlfriend who had a copy of 10 collected goon show scripts (which I stole after they broke up). Dad had "I'm sorry I'll read that again" on reel to reel (yeah, baby, reel to fucking reel)
The low tech nature and actual voices of the goon show was something of a disappointment to actually listen to after ISIRTA, but those scripts, in my head, were superlative.
posted by Sparx at 2:33 PM on April 5, 2008
My dad used to have a girlfriend who had a copy of 10 collected goon show scripts (which I stole after they broke up). Dad had "I'm sorry I'll read that again" on reel to reel (yeah, baby, reel to fucking reel)
The low tech nature and actual voices of the goon show was something of a disappointment to actually listen to after ISIRTA, but those scripts, in my head, were superlative.
posted by Sparx at 2:33 PM on April 5, 2008
Sapristi Nukkoes! There goes most of my week and my last remaining shred of sanity. And you know what?
Fine. Fine. Fine.
posted by ninazer0 at 3:26 PM on April 5, 2008
Fine. Fine. Fine.
posted by ninazer0 at 3:26 PM on April 5, 2008
Great stuff! Especially thanks for the Runing, Jumping, and Standing Still Film, I've been wanting to see that ever since I read about it in relation to A Hard Days Night.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 8:33 AM on April 6, 2008
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 8:33 AM on April 6, 2008
They'll never fire at their own matches!
posted by chudmonkey at 10:59 AM on April 6, 2008
posted by chudmonkey at 10:59 AM on April 6, 2008
Poor Michael Bentine, how quickly they forget. The fourth Goon.
posted by tellurian at 10:12 PM on April 6, 2008
posted by tellurian at 10:12 PM on April 6, 2008
I once had to to judge a Goons competition on a radio station I was working for.
Entrants were told to write to us, saying what the Goons meant to them, "using twenty words or less".
I awarded it to the person whose entry read: LESS.
posted by AmbroseChapel at 11:28 PM on April 6, 2008 [3 favorites]
Entrants were told to write to us, saying what the Goons meant to them, "using twenty words or less".
I awarded it to the person whose entry read: LESS.
posted by AmbroseChapel at 11:28 PM on April 6, 2008 [3 favorites]
Lets not forget their puppet forms. I don't recall being much impressed by the radio show as it had just been there, being endlessly repeated in the background, for about as long as I'd existed.
The breakthrough for me was when I was eight or nine and they started to appear on television in puppet form and I was completely hooked. In the pre-swinging sixties, Dr. Who and the Telegoons *were* Saturday night children's television.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 3:52 AM on April 7, 2008
The breakthrough for me was when I was eight or nine and they started to appear on television in puppet form and I was completely hooked. In the pre-swinging sixties, Dr. Who and the Telegoons *were* Saturday night children's television.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 3:52 AM on April 7, 2008
Has anyone seen this site?
http://www.thegoonshow.net/
I loved these shows. Have a huge collection on cassette. Unfortunetly, no one else (I thought) had heard of them.
The reading of the stage directions as dialog, hilarious.
Here is Spike's version of "Its A Small World", the only version I can stomach.
posted by Ying_Ko at 11:49 AM on April 7, 2008
http://www.thegoonshow.net/
I loved these shows. Have a huge collection on cassette. Unfortunetly, no one else (I thought) had heard of them.
The reading of the stage directions as dialog, hilarious.
Here is Spike's version of "Its A Small World", the only version I can stomach.
posted by Ying_Ko at 11:49 AM on April 7, 2008
PeterMcDermott - I looked all over for video of the Telegoons, because I really want to see that, but it doesn't seem to be up anywhere.
posted by louche mustachio at 4:14 PM on April 7, 2008
posted by louche mustachio at 4:14 PM on April 7, 2008
Poor quality, but here's a taste for you louche mustachio – Napoleon's Piano.
posted by tellurian at 7:58 PM on April 7, 2008 [1 favorite]
posted by tellurian at 7:58 PM on April 7, 2008 [1 favorite]
^ THANK YOU!
posted by louche mustachio at 8:08 PM on April 7, 2008
posted by louche mustachio at 8:08 PM on April 7, 2008
I'm putting this on the British comedy wiki page.
The Mukkinese links are broken, by the way: part 1, part 2, part 3.
posted by Pronoiac at 3:56 PM on April 13, 2008
The Mukkinese links are broken, by the way: part 1, part 2, part 3.
posted by Pronoiac at 3:56 PM on April 13, 2008
Update: Wiki, & the last part of the The Last Goon Show of All.
posted by Pronoiac at 4:25 PM on April 13, 2008
posted by Pronoiac at 4:25 PM on April 13, 2008
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posted by louche mustachio at 3:05 AM on April 5, 2008