DBE in Louisiana
SPIKE MILLIGAN
Terence Alan Patrick Sean Milligan, KBE, known as Spike, 1918-2002. Irish comedian, writer, musician, poet and playwrite. Modern day genius.
Before political correctness, there was the Goon Show. (on radio - with Harry Secombe, Peter Sellers and Michael Bentine.)
I started to think about the Goon Show last week, when someone sent me a Spike Milligan card, and right on the front was one of his silly poems . . .
"Today I saw a little worm
Wriggling on his belly
Perhaps he'd like to come inside
And see what's on the telly."
The Goon Show ran from 1951 to 1960, with "The Very Last Goon Show of All Time" in 1972. If you are too young to remember them, you missed a treat. The characters were unforgettable . . . Neddie Seagoon, Bluebottle, Eccles, Major Bloodnok, Count Jim Moriarty.
The brilliance of the show was that it never made any sense, but was weirdly funny nonetheless. In a way, it was the predecessor of Monty Python's Flying Circus.
Spike Milligan was the driving force behind the Goon Show, and wrote most of the episodes, although the show's strength was its improvisation. Spike was the one who was most "on the edge" and his "silly poems" showed a very childlike quality . . .
"Said Hamlet to Ophelia
I'd draw a sketch of thee
What kind of pencil shall I use?
2B or not 2B"
"My sister Laura's bigger than me
And lifts me up quite easily
I can't lift her, I've tried and tried
She must have something heavy inside."
Milligan often joked that he wanted to be buried in a washing machine, "Just to confuse the archaeologists" but he is actually buried with a headstone that reads (in Irish) "I told you I was ill."
The official "Goon Show Preservation Society" can be found online and on Facebook. You can actually download episodes of the Goon Show
If you go on Youtube, you will find many of the Goon Show episodes, including "The Very Last Goon Show of All Time"