The Goon Show was a British radio comedy programme, originally produced and broadcast by the BBC Home Service from 1951 to 1960, with occasional repeats on the BBC Light Programme. The first series broadcast from 28 May to 20 September 1951, was titled Crazy People; subsequent series had the title The Goon Show, a title inspired, according to Spike Milligan, by a Popeye character. The show's chief creator and main writer was Spike Milligan. The scripts mixed ludicrous plots with surreal humour, puns, catchphrases and an array of bizarre sound effects.
The Goon Show has been variously described as "avant-garde", "surrealist", "abstract", and "four dimensional". The show paved the way for surreal and alternative humour, as acknowledged by comedians such as Eddie Izzard. The surreality was part of the attraction for Sellers, and this exacerbated his mental instability especially during the third series. Many of the sequences have been cited as being visionary in the way that they challenged the traditional conventions of comedy. In the Pythons' autobiography, Terry Jones states "The Goons of course were my favourite. It was the surreality of the imagery and the speed of the comedy that I loved - the way they broke up the conventions of radio and played with the very nature of the medium." This is reiterated by Michael Palin and John Cleese in their contributions to Ventham's (2002) book. Cleese recalls listening to The Goon Show as a teenager in the mid-1950s "and being absolutely amazed by its surreal humour. It came at a key stage in my own development and I never missed a show". Additionally, Milligan played games with the medium itself. Whole scenes were written in which characters would leave, close the door behind themselves, yet still be inside the room. Further to this, characters would announce their departure, slam a door, but it would be another character who had left the room. That character would then beat on the door for re-admittance, the door would open and close and again the wrong character would be locked out.
What was surrealist about The Goon Show?
The Goon Show has been variously described as "avant-garde", "surrealist", "abstract", and "four dimensional". Many of the sequences have been cited as being visionary in the way that they challenged the traditional conventions of comedy. surreality was part of the attraction for Sellers, and this exacerbated his mental instability especially during the third series. It was the surreality of the imagery and the speed of the comedy that I loved - The surreality was part of the attraction for Sellers, and this exacerbated his mental instability especially during the third series.
The surreality was part of the attraction for Sellers, and this exacerbated his mental instability especially during the third series.