Goons club
The
Red Fort
Seagoon: We've come to disconnect your phone.
The Red Bladder: I haven't got one.
Seagoon: Don't worry, we've brought one with us.
Tales of Old Dartmoor
Bluebottle: Me and Eccles know where it's gone, Captain.
Eccles: Yeah. We know.
Seagoon: Splendid, lads. Tell me where it is and I'll reduce your sentence from two years to four.
Bluebottle: Well, it, er, went, um - Thinks: Where did it went? It wented - Eccles?
Eccles: Yeah?
Bluebottle: Do you remember, Eccles?
Eccles: Oh yeah, I remember Eccles.
Bluebottle: Well, does he know where it wented?
Eccles: I'll ask him: Do you know where it wented?
Bluebottle: What does he say, Eccles?
Eccles: He hasn't answered yet, I think he's out.
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The legacy it created influenced just about every comedy act from that day forward, from Monty Python to Eddie Izzard, and heralded a new dawn in radio and TV comedy. There are plenty of Laurel and Hardy parallels and connections. The Goons featured Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe. They burst onto the radio with surreal storylines, absurd logic, puns, catch phrases and ground-breaking sound effects. They ridiculed the pomposity of those in authority and laughed at the stupidity of mankind. Despite the popular conception that the funniest television one-liner first appeared in Dad's Army (as in "Vot's your name?" -"Don't tell him, Pike. . .") it was actually heard in a Goon Show many years earlier, in a conversation between Neddie Seagoon and Minnie Bannister. When Inspector Seagoon asks Henry Crun who he is, Minnie Bannister is heard to call back, "Don't tell him, Henry. . . ." For fans of today that legacy remains. And that is why there is a Goons Show Preservation Society. The club says, "We mustn't let the Goon humour that Spike created disappear from our memories. So please join now and send your application to the Membership Secretary, who is Colin Silk, 305 Maidstone Road, Rainham, Gillingham, Kent, ME8 0HA. Annual membership costs £10.00 for adults, £8.50 for students (proof needed), and £11.00 for overseas members. Make your cheque payable to The Goon Show Preservation Society. Payment can also be made via PayPal by using the society's name gsps@blueyonder.co.uk.
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The
Goon Show was a British radio show which
started in 1951 and ran until 1960. It changed the
face of British comedy and maintains its influence
to this day! The Goon Show is enshrined in
radio history as "The show that broke the mould",
taking post-war audiences from the doldrums.