Fools in the Forest

New Zealand Listener, Volume 37, Issue 937, 26 July 1957, Page 18

Fools in the Forest

MY elderly deaf friend likes the Goon Show because he doesn’t need to understand a word of it to enjoy listening. Which to my mind counts against the Goons, though it’s not to say he mightn’t enjoy it more if he could understand a word. But how much more? I fear my disapproval is only pretence, however. Lately something has turned traitor and I find myself rocking with laughter unawares. Worse still, I find something lacking in most other comedy shows which is present in the Goon Show. Worst of all, I don’t now positively dislike Eccles and Bluebottle. Have the Goons got me? Am I deaded? Looks like it. 5 But I still think Tony Hancock is the most genuine comic at present among us, The format of Hancock's Halt-Hour is remarkably like that of the Goon Show. Sid James does the villainies instead of Grytpype-thynne, Hancock is innocently misled like Harry (continued on next page) |

Seagoon, and explosions ensue, figuratively if not always literally. They're too much alike, considering the Hancock script lacks the finesse of the Goons. But Hancock himself has that touch of tragic dignity which has always been the mark of the perfect fool. And he’s human. The Goons might have come from another planet. I prefer men to space-men. We also have Gert and Daisy in Floggit’s, sounding older than they did 20 years ago, but not as much older as you'd expect, remembering they were no chickens then. They're dreadfully corny, but they’ve got something. And we have Archie, for whom I have little love, and Radio Roadhouse, for which, I regret to say, I haven’t much more this year. Some time ago we had the BBC Variety. Parade, one or two episodes apiece from other comedies, seemingly chosen to show how right the BBC was not to send the series out in their entirety, But they might have sounded better if we’d had more episodes to judge from. For a niggle has been niggling, Are even the best of these comedies as funny as they seem? While you're laughing it’s hard to take an objective look at why you’re laughing. When I’ve tried the experiment the result has often appalled me. I’m apparently in the grip of some psychological necessity. I read somewhere that Bob Hope once lost his script for a short time and ad-libbed with disconnected and meaningless phrases. The audience laughed as loud as ever, He is said to have emerged somewhat shaken from the experience. So am I being converted to the Goons, or conditioned? Too much speculation. On with the motley! But I wish they’d give Sabrina a rest, whoever she might be.

R.D.

McE.