Spike Milligan: Origins
No doubt you haven’t heard about Spike Milligan, the comic “genius” behind The Goon Show. If you haven’t, you may not find it interesting to read this rather odd precis of his life in the “Interesting Motherfuckers” department of the Acid Logic eZine.
Secombe had already met Spike on the field of battle in North Africa when Milligan’s unit had brilliantly allowed a one and a half ton artillery piece to fall off of a cliff and on top of Secobe’s outfit encamped below. There was a tremendous “One And A Half Ton Artillery Piece Falling Off Of A Cliff” uproar and calm was only restored when Gunner Milligan strolled up to Secombe and his squabbling comrades to cheerfully inquire “Anyone seen a gun?” Who needs an Indian officer’s uniform, a fake beard, and a turban to be funny when you’ve got a one and a half ton artillery piece you can drop on people?
Personally, I’m ecstatic about the BBC’s plans to release their archives onto file sharing networks because it means I can replace all my crappy mp3s of Goon Show episodes which must have been ripped from radio using God-knows-what 1950’s technology and then miracuosly encoded into mp3 by retirees who were a little wary of the quality control settings in their encoders.