Spike Milligan - English Language

[40harb]

spike milligan - the godfather of alternative comedy

[LargeLeader]

GEEEET OUT!

[dharmaseed]

They say you can tell a lot about a man by looking at the eyes. 'Nuff said.

[PhilK1231]

Without Spike there wouldn't have been a Monty Python.

[bam6470]

Dane cook is better.

[wordreet]

@bam6470 Dane cook isn't dead, how can that possibly be better?

[UlyssesFrankfurter]

@bam6470 dane cook is terrible

[bam6470]

@UlyssesFrankfurter no, this guy is terrible.

[UlyssesFrankfurter]

@bam6470 this guy is important. hes not my cup of tea either, but at least i can respect his influence on comedy.

[grimlockfire]

what show did he do

[anthonythirteen]

what are we going to do now? what are we going to do now? what are we going to do now? what are we going to do now? what are we going to do now?

[somame69]

The Milligan himself said it best..."It's all in the mind folks".......if you haven't already, read Puckoon.....it should be in The Library of Congress

[dharmaseed]

What's the running gag with the tags on the clothes? It's on quite a few MIlligan sketches.

[kebladas]

@dharmaseed - It's there because it was. He just found it funny.

[dharmaseed]

@kebladas Hmm...anything for a laugh, eh?

[Ironbulluk]

I sat next to him on a flight to Edinburgh where he was performing at the Edinburgh festival. He was terrified and I think pissed. I was with a friend of mine who wasa priest and a recovering alcoholic. They had this really amazing conversation about life and loneliness. At the end of the flight he left the plane last and hugged all the air hostesses and shook hands with the pilot not asa celebrity but because he was safely down. Whenever I look at him on youtube that's what I remember. RIP.

[Chris51]

@Ironbulluk - what a great story that is. He was an amazing man and I really do hope he is in Heaven. God does have a brilliant sense of humour after all.

[capricious71]

@Ironbulluk That's a nice story. I can imagine him doing all that. Thanks for sharing.

[kenfig]

Madness,sheer madness and i love it ! Never will we have another remotely like Milligan in this pathetic modern world full of pretentious and plastic entertainment and people.Makes me not feel bad about going myself !

[markysparky1965]

@kenfig How correct you are!! Spike was such an inspiration to me in many ways. He could see the insanity of political correctness, he just said it how it was but with his usual satirical sense of humour so as to get past the idiotic censorship that prevails. I love his manner, his quick whit and most of all that he really didn't care what anyone else though of him as a person.He found humour in the most unusual subjects. His epitaph as requested is "I told you i was ill!" Long live his memory!!

[AlexanderT21]

@markysparky1965 He did in fact have "I told you I was ill" written on his grave, although they made them do it in Irish

[SethHesio]

@kenfig Here here!

[anticapitalista100]

is he dead?

[daveiscoolyeah]

@anticapitalista100 sadly yes

[chrisburchardt]

Brilliant stuff. The inflation theme was also covered by the excellent Victor Borge.

[carrotstick24601]

It is all brilliant, but the bit that really cracks me up is that to be or not to be part. Spike Miligan = legend

[WorldFreemanSociety]

If you are not having fun, then your not doing it right. I think God is coping very well, it's the others I am worried about.

[soira9]

Faaaaaaaantastic. Thanks for posting!

[goonshowTV]

Check out my new Goon show channel. It features a rare TV version of the Ying Tong song sung by the goon show gang.Simply click on my link.

[msjanet2012]

I downloaded an iPhone / ipod touch app called "Pocket Goon" (59 pence!) It's totally great at showing off what the Goons were all about. It has video and audio clips from early 1956 and has two versions of the Ying Tong song on with video!! Theres a young Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers and others; but unfortunately no Harry Seacombe. Still, it's a "must have" for Goon fans. Absolutely brilliant.

[lordgreystuff]

Good evening - Good evening =

[AnonymousWhitePerson]

The presenter has an aquiline proboscis.

[AnonymousWhitePerson]

The English Language is a Germanic Mistake.

[DiggermanNo1]

@AnonymousWhitePerson, I suppose that comment is meant to be smart arse, however any one who has looked at your profile will see that in actual fact you are a twat.

[moyadapne]

@DiggermanNo1... You're being a bit tough on the guy. It's people like him who keep the Thesaurus industry thriving. Imagine being around him. Gotta feel sorry for them, surely.

[DiggermanNo1]

@moyadapne, 1 x feeling sorry for him and 1 x thinking he is a twat, is worth about 1.5 x good evening's or in old money £1 3s 6d, but really he's a sorry little twat.

[mush1955]

Every thing gotta be so bloody PC ! these days.....if there had been PC thirty years ago........comedy would be in the stone age.

[ProjectFlashlight612]

On the 'Spike was racist' thing. Graham Stark, who was friends with both Spike and Sellers, said once that Milligan was unnerved at a party...when Stark asked why, Spike said "The place is full of Jews'. Stark then told him to grow the hell up. And there are a few mildly anti- Semitic jokes in his shows too. eg "The Jewish piano!" (cash register sound) On the other hand, we have the Spike who inspired the metaphor of racial harmony in 'Ebony and Ivory'. Complex, troubled, and a genius.

[Archuria]

Lmao "In 1899 this was the value of the English GEEEEET OUT!" *everyone runs out of the country* "Today" GEEEEEET OUT!" *muslim guys makes fun of the general*

xD

[Rakunk76]

He's an Arab showing his lack of respect for the former colonial power in his country, his faith doesn't go into it.

[sneighwena]

I didn't get it. Good night? To be? Freebie?

He should be saying Laku Noch!!!

[shanannigan]

three be not free be

[MaskedMan66]

And to think the skull of Yorick has been reduced to a mere blue balloon. What is the world coming to??

[MaskedMan66]

What's with the tags on all Spike's costumes?

[andrewsdream]

The BBC wardrobe and costume departments would put tags on everything. They would be removed when filming a show, but Spike, with his brilliant sense of humour, left them on for a laugh, and it worked!

[UberMan5000]

I was wondering that, too.

[Splooshiba]

the running joke was that they took the clothes from the BBCs collection, and didn't want to spend anything on the budget, so put it all back afterwards

[maxwellsgoldenhammer]

The comments about Spike being racist are interesting , dont agree , it was the times

perhaps

I just finished watching Canadian comic Russell Peters skewering

several racial groups not the least of which is his own country of India

hardly racist

[IrishDubliner99]

In Tunisia you can still get two good evenings for one Hallo Sailor - LOL

Former British PM Edward Heath must have loved that one ;) ?

[IrishDubliner99]

Good old Spike at his zany best . Took the piss out of everybody - Refused a knighthood and was buried after service in an Anglican Church with an Irish tricolour draped coffin .

Spike was'nt a racist . He understood the world of war only too well .

[ThomasTrue]

Spike quite often made skits about scots, with ridiculous kilts, silly accents, penny-pinching accusations etc. I have a real problem with most comics doing that because they are racist tartan clowns. When Spike did it, however, he did so without any malice intended and he would just as easily take off other people. Never a racist, just one of the greatest comics of the twentieth century. Modern so-called comedians can't hold a candle to him, not least because we've become way too PC.

[psychosis80]

"Spike quite often made skits about scots, with ridiculous kilts, silly accents, penny-pinching accusations etc. I have a real problem with most comics doing that because they are racist tartan clowns. .......Modern so-called comedians can't hold a candle to him, not least because we've become way too PC. "

you dont like silly kilts and daft accents because they're racist,then you say comedians are too pc these days.

Can you see the irony in this?

[ThomasTrue]

It may seem ironic psychosis80, but as I said, Spike had no malice in it and he did it with style. I also said he would just as easily take off others - including the Irish (his own background) and the English. There's a very fine line but I honestly don't find Spike Milligan offensive. And anyway, I still forgive Spike for the simple fact he was Spike Milligan. :-)

[EvilDMMk3]

You think that is bad, try finding anyone to even take a Welsh Prinhawn Da!

[Columbo794]

It's spelt pryhawn da actually.

[pml458]

QUALITY .

[ccfox9133]

Nowadays the American "How you doing?" has gone down against the Iraqi "Infidels", but you can still get in San Francisco "Well hello, big boy".

[mepjohnson]

Put him in the curry.

[alexandermonk1]

Yes! Put him in the curry!

[alanatgrena]

You either love him or hate him.But I'm nither

[herringsinthewood]

Your comment makes no sense.

[mepjohnson]

I love him(apart from the racist overtone bits)

[FordPrefect23]

Spike to my knowledge wasn't racist, he was born and grew up in India, he could speak the language and knew the customs. He liked to play on stereotypes due to their rediculousness. Listen to the Goon show and hear for yourself.

[mepjohnson]

He was not racist, I'm just wary in today's politically correct society that the stuff he did was near the knuckle for some folk.

I think he took great influence from his environment, India etc and turned them into humour this is great.

Look at my post above, it would be difficult to get away with the Indian Darlek in 2009, and as for 'Curry and Chips' !

I love Spike but in today's culture he would be viewed as racist, however, in 1977 it would not be.

I just view him from, then, as funny.

[EnglishmaninPoland]

Spike Milligan was absolutely not racist. There's a classic moment in his war autobiographies where his battalion are posted somewhere and an Indian battalion were manning the defences. A fellow soldier said "Bloody wogs!" and Milligan replied "Those wogs are standing between you and the Germans."

[eduardoflores1982]

Let's not forget, men of Spike's age might well have said words like "wog", or made fun of kilts etc, but they also spent six years of their youth fighting fascism.

[alanatgrena]

You miss the point

Spike was always nonsensical.

The comment was also nonsensical

ie not supposed to make sense. that was the basis of all the Goone shows.

[MilesB1975]

Pleased to meet you Nither!

[furQ]

It's great because you can tell he's trying really hard not to laugh

[Flamencon]

Geoff900, "Basically, alot of the words in the English are made up words, the English dictionary is made of slang words, aswell of having made up words."

I'm afraid the meaning of the above eludes me but for your other comments, I can only agree

[britonstandup]

Spike must have had a crystal ball

[Flamencon]

Who determines the nature of 'best' English? It's a dynamic language that is constantly in a state of flux; no two generations speak it exactly the same way. 'Best' seems to me the ability to express oneself with the most effective vocab and inflection to fit the circumstances no matter who expresses it..

[Geoff900]

All the higher classes use vocabulary, to make certain members sound much more intelligent, politications, scientists even I do some times when referring to software but not to the same degree.

Basically, alot of the words in the English are made up words, the English dictionary is made of slang words, aswell of having made up words.

Alot, of words are to make people sound more cleaver, and that's basically what Spike Milligan was saying.

[Lkyda]

It looks as if all of the commenters missed the point of his gag.

[LeOnShIpToN]

just dont say americans can speak english better than us because you dont alright!

[jaywon06]

Americans speak the best english!

[no1tobea]

Please please don't ever say that . . . Americans speak AMERICAN English . . . and the English people speak English . . . see . . (okay the whole britishness speaks differnet dialects, but in other words just don't say that Americans speak better english than the english . . doesn't make sense

[jaywon06]

acctually it does make sense, the united states was isolated for the firs 100 yrs or so, while england was influnced by heavy immigration and surrounded by many different speaking cultures, while Americans preserved the english language (which is not the case now)

[no1tobea]

Well technically America was still being influenced by the other European invaders at the time (French etc) so they were also affected. All I am saying is that by technicality no one speaks the best english as there are many dialects . . and technically the English language is the one spoken (and taught to non-english speakers) by the English as it is English, I am not saying what Americans speak is not closer to old english, but erm when did this ever involve the old english?

[Phranky]

The argument that Americans speak better English because they were isolated for the first 100 years is total nonsense.

[01roadwarrior]

the english speak the worst english iv ever herd. underpronuncination(if that is a real word, but you kno wat i mean) seems to affect the whole country reguardless of wat reigon there from.put it down to sheer lazyness and its getin worse. just watch channel U lol

[no1tobea]

What's U channel?? And erm yeah we don't always pronounce every word perfectly, but actually some do . . . go to the west end in London . . hello posh much. Most actors speak with a neutral accent, and put an accent on .. .but wait I'm rambling. Anyway, most people don't pronounce every word properly, it's the same anywhere . . . so don't just pin it on the English . .

tbh I can't be bothered to defend us anymore, yes I am lazy, but hey do I care? no . .

[01roadwarrior]

chill out,i wasn out to offend,

oh and channel U is an english urban music station, 360 on sky didital for any1 intrested lol. it must be the worst thing on television

[no1tobea]

Sorry . . yeah . . =D

God no wonder . . . hmm probably the worst thing on television I would have to agree

[Geoff900]

I find it rather ironic that you say, the English cannot pronounce our word's correctly yet you cannot even spell, and use your grammar correctly.

[Geoff900]

Most of the world speaks English, infact in most countries English is an second language China, India etc

[01roadwarrior]

thanks to the engling shoveing down there necks. and whats that got to do wit english not useing 'proper' english

[Geoff900]

I really don't know what you're trying to say to be honest, you make no sense.

[01roadwarrior]

you best fuck off then you seem to hav missed the point

[whirlyfan]

i with you on that !

[whirlyfan]

have some smarties

[buttsyrc8]

What a pure genius he was!

I adore him!

Listen to the War Diaries - pure brilliance!

[VirginOnTheRidicule]

I've just put some of his out takes from the war diaries down on youtube 'JustAudio2008' Spike outakes - he use to make himself laugh - so we kept having to stop the recording session, ( thats when he turned up - session often got canceled at short notice ) kept about 60mins of out takes ,

He was very timid at first , but after time would chat over tea .

His agent Norma Farnes wrote a good book about him.

[malcstag]

genius, why wont he BBC broadcast his stuff again, shame on them.

[tomnamoon]

...now you know whats wrong with the country.

[haldenver]

it is politically incorrect. Personally i find Spike Milligan very offensive : he has no respect for my ethnicity, my deep depresion and my basic human right not to have a sense of humour.

The man was a menace, threatening laughter in all the wrong places.

[LeOnShIpToN]

its only ment to make you lagh cheer up :)

[haldenver]

...exactly, and that is the trouble. Milligan was a menace of laughter! I will be restricting my repetitive viewing of his performances considerably!!

[Geoff900]

They probably class alot of his work as racist, even though the BBC allows Little Britain, and The office on t.v which in my mind is the worst type of comedy ever.

[redteapot1]

hmm, i don't know. I think Spike is the Stones, and Python are the Kinks. I think the Pythons drew heavily from spike. They all grew up on the goons

[HEV29]

Think of comedy in musical terms:

Pythons = Beatles

Milligan = classic 50s rock and roll...

Imagine the Pythons doing cover versions of Spike's work...

I think I'll go to bed now...

PS: Milligan's poems are underrated and BRILLIANT.

[MontyDave]

What was the name of the show that this clip is part of? Was it one of the Q series?

I'm an American Spike fan, and haven't seen Spike's TV programs on our local Hern Hern networks.

[haldenver]

Why is humour seen as "low art" ? Milligan was a major ARTIST but,unfortunately, he also made people laugh and refused to cut off his ear. Read some of those serious poems such as "The Future" (1972) : i want that on my gravestone.

Comedy is the British Art......leave those italians to order the marble!

[BusterDwarf]

GEEEET OUT!

[04faddy06]

I wonder how god is coping with spike?

God bless the looney.

I took a day off work when he passed on.

[hospitalxcore]

so did i. or school, rather. 

'the end of an era' my mother said.

milligan was, is a genius.

[Navidsinghrao]

@04faddy06 "I told you I was ill" lol

[fritzfritz18]

if you google 'q6 milligan', you will find the Qseries tribute site with lots of scripts and pics and vids from Spike Milligan's finest TV hour. And a DVD petition to sign!

[fartjoke2000]

pythons and later fry & laurie did those things way better

[tattiemanie]

Bollocks did they. They were copying spike. Cant you understand that at all???

Spike was the first to do this kind of thing, - So it was his original idea. End of story.

[fartjoke2000]

no, i cant understand that at all... i am perfectly aware that pythons acknowledge his influence in certain aspects of the structure of sketches (no punch lines etc) etc but they really took it to different places entirely. he was still delivering 'light entertainment', while the pythons invented deconstructive comedy, which is way above and beyond spike's artistic limits

[tattiemanie]

Don´t agree with your opinion in the slightest I´m afraid...

[fartjoke2000]

right, everyone just nicked everything from spike. makes more sense really

[tattiemanie]

Glad you agree ;-)

[peteandurnot]

Whatever, the main thing is that the Pythons, Fry and Laurie and all others were heavily influenced by Spike Milligan. Whether or not they did certain things better is irrelevant really. I think it could be argued that if there'd been no Spike Milligan then there may have been no comedy, or if there would be then it would be devoid of a certain brilliance.

[themightyimp08]

I'm a die hard Python fan, one of those that can quote every word, every pause, every silly noise. So you would think I was on their side..

Spike Milligan was the first with his brand of lunacy, and the pythons wholesale copied whole sketches, sometimes hardly even changing the words, let alone the basic concept..

I was young when the Q series, and there's a lot of it about was running, and he altered my consciousness, that's for sure!

Shame about the BBC and the whole money business.

[HypoCooper]

Monty Python said on numerous occasions that they compied a lot off Spike Milligan, particularly the inability to finish sketches.

[TheLateBobTodd]

The moving background reminds me slightly of Max Headroom! Is this available on any video or DVD compilation?