Tiny comedy mysteries which remain unanswered

[lazyhour]

Not really a tiny comedy mystery, but this has been driving me crazy for a few days and I thought this thread might be the kind of place where I'd get an answer.

What is the comedy programme that started the now-oft-quoted-on-the-internet quiz answer of "Geoff Hurst in the 1966 World Cup final"?  The concept was that one answer in a multiple choice quiz is usually very obviously wrong...

[Kazuo Kiriyama]

Not really a tiny comedy mystery, but this has been driving me crazy for a few days and I thought this thread might be the kind of place where I'd get an answer.

What is the comedy programme that started the now-oft-quoted-on-the-internet quiz answer of "Geoff Hurst in the 1966 World Cup final"?  The concept was that one answer in a multiple choice quiz is usually very obviously wrong...

The Mary Whitehouse Experience?

To be more anally specific, I think it was Hugh Dennis.

[lazyhour]

TV or radio, do you think?  I was never a big fan of TMWE, so I didn't think that could be it, but you seem pretty certain...

[boxofslice]

TV or radio, do you think?  I was never a big fan of TMWE, so I didn't think that could be it, but you seem pretty certain...

Concur on it being TMWE.  To this day if someone asks me a question I don't know the answer to, I will automatically use the Geoff Hurst line.

[dr_christian_troy]

In the last episode of The Thick Of It (Episode 8, Series 3), why does Peter Mannion say 'Five years' after being confronted by Cal 'the Fucker' Richards?

[Roy*Mallard]

I think it's insinuating that the Tories are going to get into power and therefore, Mannion will have to put up with Cal Richards for 5 years, a la Labour having to deal with Tucker during their stint.

[dr_christian_troy]

I think it's insinuating that the Tories are going to get into power and therefore, Mannion will have to put up with Cal Richards for 5 years, a la Labour having to deal with Tucker during their stint.

Ah, that makes sense. Thanks!

[Gulftastic]

Here's an old one.

There's an episode of Cheers, during the Rebecca Howe years, where it's her, Sam and (I think) Robin Colcord in the back of a Limo, following some hilarious mix up. Rebecca and Robin start to make out, and so throw Sam out in the middle of a bad part of town. When Sam gets back to Cheers, he tells the rest of the gang that he woluld have been in trouble if he hadn't met 'those friendly punks', and it gets a big laugh from the studio audience, as if he was referrincing something. Does anyone know if the was making such a reference, or do Americans just find the idea of punks being friendly funny on it's own?

[rudi]

Punks in the American usage of the word means the joke's just as you suspected, I'd imagine.

[neveragain]

I remember hearing something had been edited out of the last episode of the wonderful 'If You See God Tell Him' on DVD. Can anyone recall what it was? I've a feeling it's from the scene with Godfrey working at the Samaritans, as it cuts off as soon as it starts without any other reference to it.

Another slight mystery - how could he manage to stay in his 'luxury apartment' for so long before the bailiffs arrived? But I'd chalk that one down to comedy.

[Artemis]

Did anyone ever get to the bottom of whether the laugh in Brass Eye's moral decline was genuine or not? I'm 99% certain it was, but I need to know, god damnit.

[Tokyo Sexwhale]

TV or radio, do you think?  I was never a big fan of TMWE, so I didn't think that could be it, but you seem pretty certain...

It was definitely Punt and Dennis in TMWE radio version.  There was also a bit about science experiments either being accelerating something to light speed, or heating some ice in a pan.

[Old Thrashbarg]

Why was Ainsley Harriot so utterly brilliant in his brief appearance during Mark Steel's lecture on Isaac Newton?

[I Am The Walrus]

Did anyone ever get to the bottom of whether the laugh in Brass Eye's moral decline was genuine or not? I'm 99% certain it was, but I need to know, god damnit.

I don't think anyone will truly know, however it seems far too subtle and in the background to be staged, and given the problems with the original transmission of the of the episode, I wouldn't declare it outside the realms of possibility that it was a sloppy edit.

[Glebe]

This is odd... the other night, there was an episode of The Two Ronnies from the mid-80s on GOLD, which featured a sketch about a viking quest which I always remember, because it contained a particularly funny Python-inspired moment; the Two Rons are vikings who have a parchment which leads to a treasure cave, and has 'Beware the giant rabbi' on it. The gaga is that Ronnie C's character assumes that the writting has faded away, and that it should 'rabbit'. Of course, it really is a giant rabbi - a big, boggle-eyed It's A Knockout rabbi, as it happens. To my surprize, the bit where the rabbi appears was cut out - because it was later considered an offensive caricature, one would assume. However, the end credits started to show bits from the sketches, and I had a feeling it might show the rabbi - and sure enough, it did! Strange.

[Jack Shaftoe]

Crikey, I remember seeing that sketch years ago, when I was a little 'un (I think it was a repeat), and being very confused, because I didn't know what a 'rabbi' what. In the same week some minor character on 'LA Law' went mental on a paintball thing and got called 'Rambowitz', which I didn't understand either. My dad tried to explain via a 'hilarious' 'feel the schmutter' type Jewoid impression, which didn't help much. In a striking twist of fate, it later turned out that my family is in fact a bit Jewish, on my dad's side.

So, in conclusion: Jews.

[An tSaoi]

Not so much a mystery as a query that doesn't warrant a thread. In Monty Python's Raymond Luxury Yacht sketches, is it pronounced Throatwarbler Mangrove or Throatwobbler Mangrove? 'Wobbler' gets 43,800 Google hits, whereas 'warbler' (which to me makes more sense) only gets 18,800. Chapman seems to be saying 'wobbler', but that might just be his accent.

Any official evidence?

[Ambient Sheep]

Script book, for a start.

[mjwilson]

Not so much a mystery as a query that doesn't warrant a thread. In Monty Python's Raymond Luxury Yacht sketches, is it pronounced Throatwarbler Mangrove or Throatwobbler Mangrove? 'Wobbler' gets 43,800 Google hits, whereas 'warbler' (which to me makes more sense) only gets 18,800. Chapman seems to be saying 'wobbler', but that might just be his accent.

Any official evidence?

It's "Throatwobbler" in the script book.

[The Cloud of Unknowing]

There's a bird called a Yellow-Throated Warbler, but I agree it's almost certainly "Throatwobbler" - compare with the Stoatgobbler component of "Malcolm Peter Brian Telescope Adrian Umbrella Stand Jasper Wednesday Stoatgobbler John Raw Vegetable Arthur Norman Michael Featherstone Smith Northgot Edwards Harris Mason Frampton Jones Fruitbat Gilbert We'll keep a welcome in the Williams If I Could Walk That Way Jenkin Tiger-drawers Pratt Thompson Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head Darcy Carter Pussycat Don't Sleep In The Subway Barton Mainwaring Smith" (sound effects omitted) from Election Night Special.

[An tSaoi]

Cheers all.

[Lyndon]

I have a question rather than a mystery which I don't really expect an answer to, but I'll try anyway...

There was an episode of ISIHAC where they did a parody of all the TV quiz shows, Millionaire, Weakest Link, University Challenge etc. The one I specifically remember was the "What Happens Next?" round, which was just that, Humph asked (maybe) Graham "What Happens Next?". It was the most that Clue has ever made me laugh. I think it would have been around Series 35-38 sometime, or 2000/2001. Does anyone somehow know which episode exactly? I would be eternally grateful. Thanks.

[Jemble Fred]

Well, it would be churlish not to...

It's S36 E06, from 2000. But they also did it on tour, so you can see the gag on DVD if you like.

[Lyndon]

Thank you so much. I have ordered the DVD based on the Amazon comments too. God, I'll even be buying your book soon, at this rate.

[neveragain]

We all will!

[mrClaypole]

Here's an old one.

There's an episode of Cheers, during the Rebecca Howe years, where it's her, Sam and (I think) Robin Colcord in the back of a Limo, following some hilarious mix up. Rebecca and Robin start to make out, and so throw Sam out in the middle of a bad part of town. When Sam gets back to Cheers, he tells the rest of the gang that he woluld have been in trouble if he hadn't met 'those friendly punks', and it gets a big laugh from the studio audience, as if he was referrincing something. Does anyone know if the was making such a reference, or do Americans just find the idea of punks being friendly funny on it's own?

I thought Punk meant rent boy in the USA?, perhaps the joke was he had to do "favours" to survive?.

[Cold Meat Platter]

Punk means rotten wood or rubbish in its archaic form if i'm not mistaken. The americans (pre punk rock) used it to mean hoodlum or scumbag. Dirty Harry was fond of deploying this insult pre-cunt-punching.
I assume the humour comes from the oxymoronic combination "friendly punks"
not that i'd have had continence problems, mind.

[Ignatius_S]

Punk means rotten wood or rubbish in its archaic form if i'm not mistaken. The americans (pre punk rock) used it to mean hoodlum or scumbag. Dirty Harry was fond of deploying this insult pre-cunt-punching.
I assume the humour comes from the oxymoronic combination "friendly punks"
not that i'd have had continence problems, mind.

In the States, it was used as a highly derogatory prison slang for a young homosexual inside – which would be how Dirty Harry used it. I suspect something like Dirty Harry popularised the term with people thinking more along the lines of scumbag/cheap hood as you say, not picking up on the homosexual connotations. It reminds me a bit of Dashiell Hammett eluding censors with the word 'gunsel' into The Maltese Falcon – it was slang for a young homosexual, but because of the first syllable it was assumed to mean hood or gunman and other writers used it in this sense.

Anyway, I think you're dead right about that use being oxymoronic (after I found out was an oxymoron was) – particularly as the American punk scenes was notoriously hardcore.

[Cold Meat Platter]

Aah, cool. I did notice from my furtle on the web just now that punk was used as a term for a prostitute by Shakespeare, but didn't get a quote.

[Ignatius_S]

Ah, that rings a vague bell! It was through reading about the punk music scenes that I found out about the word's rich heritage - I rememeber reading that John Lydon was partly unhappy with the word being used because it was a term applied to losers.