- It's damn difficult to pick a single moment out of The Goon Show's surreality - the series was consistently funny, but "What time is it Eccles?" would be up there.
- With this one right behind:Bluebottle: Oh, a cocktail. Good health. [Gulps](FX: Huge rumbling explosion - the kind where you hear bricks & bits of timber falling in the distance)Bluebottle: You rotten swine! You have nearly deaded me - look, my kneecaps have dropped four inches. Who made that cocktail?Gravely Headstone: Molotov.
- I has taken a look at da quotes here an I tink I likes dem.
- Meta-example: Spike Milligan at the 1994 British Comedy Awards, at the age of seventy-six, after being given his lifetime achievement award ("It's about bloody time.").Jonathan Ross: I have a letter to read out to you from His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales.
Spike Milligan: Do I kneel down for this?
Jonathan Ross: "As someone who grew up to the sounds of The Goon Show on the steam-driven wireless, I must confess that I've been a lifelong fan of the participants in the show and particularly of Spike Milligan..."
Spike Milligan: Oh, the little grovelling bastard.note - In "The String Robberies":
- We are primed to expect an appearance by Eccles—[Knocking at a door]Bloodnok: Who is that there, who is it? Only a lunatic would be out in such a storm!
- — but instead of just one Eccles, we get a whole chorus of them, all singing "Good King Wenceslas" with great feeling.Bloodnok: You crazy, mixed-up Eccleses, you! Christmas has gone!
Eccles: Oh? Which way did it go?
Bloodnok: It's finished!
Eccles: Finished? Oh, I'd better talk with my friends here.
[sound of group murmuring and muttering to themselves]
Eccles: Penny for the guy?
[sound of door slamming]
- We are primed to expect an appearance by Eccles—
- For a while, there was a great Running Gag in which Eccles made his first appearance in each episode singing a Paint Your Wagon song with... unusual lyrics:
- "I talk to the trees/That's why they put me away..." note
- Eddie Braben of Morecambe and Wise claims this was a suggestion he sent in in a fan letter and was never credited for.
- "With a smile on my face/For the whole human race/It's almost like being insane!" note
- Ram bam ra-da-ba-bum bam ba-da ba bum da ba-da de dum-dum, pa-ram bam ra-da-ba-bum bam ba-da ba bum da ba-da de dum-dum-dum-dum... bam-de-dam... bam... dun. (several seconds of silence) (starts all over again before finally being interrupted by another character) note
- "I talk to the trees/That's why they put me away..." note
- "The Siege of Fort Night":Eccles: Will I have to walk all the way?Seagoon: Of course not! Part of the way, you'll be allowed to run!
- "What's My Line": After Seagoon has performed a song that is rendered as a repeated thudding sound:
- In a classic Overly Long Gag, Crun asks Neddie for his name and address. The result can be read in its entirety in the Quotes section.
- From "The Case of the Missing CD Plates", the sound effect of the steamroller hitting Neddie Seagoon and his nickel-plated bagpipes is the leitmotif of "The Treasure of Loch Lommond" slowing to a stop.
- The Running Gag, a repeated Cutaway Gag that builds up to one hell of a Bait-and-Switch:
Meanwhile, in a notorious fish shop in Baryschool, in Yoshiwara:
(Nearly fifteen seconds of silence)
...by Jove, I do believe they're closed. - Ad-libs and mistakes are always good for a laugh.
- "The White Neddie Trade" was particularly rife with them:
Seagoon: Are you suggesting—
Minnie: (makes a high-pitched noise in the background)
Seagoon: You are suggesting—
Henry: She's jumped out of the window.
Seagoon: (holding back laughter) Are you suggesting I expose my intimate garments to the foul gaze of hot-blooded Latins?!
Throat: (moans sexually)
(a short while later)
Henry: Then we must get them out, right away! With speed, buddy!
Minnie: With speed! We mustn't waste any time!
(Henry and Minnie improvise a ten second song about not wasting time)
Minnie: Come on, we must hurry, Henry... (slightly off-mic) We've filled in time like the producer asked...
(another short while later)
Seagoon: Where are those bagpipes? I felt in the next tunnel...
Eccles: Ow! Oy, here! You naughty man you!
Seagoon: I should've said kennel, shouldn't I? Nevermind. What are you doing in this kennel?!
Eccles: What am I doing in this tunnel?- Another two almost back-to-back in "The Great String Robberies":
Mr. Lalkaka: I'll tell you what I've got, I've got a revolutionary-type dark room.
Mr. Banerjee: What have you got?
Mr. Lalkaka: No light in it. (beat, slight audience laugh) I meant to say it's got a light in it, but I killed the joke by saying 'no light in it'.
(thirty seconds later)
Seagoon: Look! The number of the house is 66 Fairycake Lane!
Bloodnok: (trying desperately not to laugh) That's been changed!- And in "The Great Spon Plague":
Henry: Min? Min modern Min? (imitating Jim Spriggs) Min modern Miiiiiin?
Minnie: What is it, cocky?
Henry: What have you put on the roof?
(Beat)
Minnie: Um, can you say that line again, because I can't answer the next one...
Henry: Uh... "Where..." Oh, yes...
Minnie: (deliberately) What is it, cocky?
Henry: Where have you put the roof?
Minnie: I sent it to the menders, it was leaking, cocky!- From the end of "The Junk Affair", Peter Sellers demonstrates the problem with Acting for Two in a live recording:
Grytpype-Thynne: Thinks: It can't last forever.
Moriarty: No, but we've got to make the most of it while we can!
Grytpype-Thynne: Yes! Now then nice man—
Moriarty: Wrong voice!
Sellers and Secombe: (both crack up)
Bluebottle: (slightly more forced than usual) Now then nice man! We want to buy that piece of junk in the window! - The entirety of the first third of the episode "Tiddleywinks" is a masterclass in absurd. It involves Peter Sellers (As Himself) becoming obsessed with expensive cars, tape recordersnote and photography, to the point that he actually believes he is a motorcar. Accordingly, he's consigned to a Bedlam House where he manages to convince Eccles that he too is a motorcar. The two escape and are finally cornered by Neddie, Moriarty and Grypthype-Thynne, who administers an experimental treatment... to Neddie, turning him into a chicken as Grypthype-Thynne gloats and laughs evilly. Then Max Geldray has his segment and the episode just ends, with Wallace Greenslade admitting the episode ran a bit short so they're going to go right into next week's episode. Cue "This is the BBC Home Service"...
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