The Goon Show – Goon Too Soon?

So, another great classic was confined to the bargain bin this week, as Abigoliah suffered through two episodes of probably the most influential, most ground-breaking comedy series of all time. But, I didn’t take this one personally. I didn’t grow up with The Goon Show, and so I admire it rather than am captivated by it. I find I prefer the things which inspired it, like the Marx Brothers, or the things it inspired, like Monty Python. I even find obviously less ambitious but arguably more refined products like Round the Horne more to my taste.

But why? For a comedy fan, everything you could possibly want is in The Goon Show: daft plots, regular characters, superb performances, a welter of jokes and it pushed the medium onwards in countless ways. All that’s true, but let me see if I can steer a path between understanding why Abigoliah rejected it (and why I don’t clasp it to my bosom either) without trashing what for many people is a beloved cultural artefact.

To begin with, it’s in the nature of innovation that the first attempt is unlikely to be the best. That’s a tricky charge to level at The Goon Show which took several years to find its feet (probably, almost all the early recordings have been lost). But it’s certainly true that John Cleese, Peter Cook, Graeme Garden, Adrian Edmondson, Ricky Gervais, Victoria Wood, Armando Iannucci and co all had the benefit that they were making comedy in a world which already included The Goon Show. Spike Milligan had to invent it from scratch.

It’s also true that it sounded very different from other radio comedy shows at the time, but today it still sounds creaky and old-fashioned – both because of the music hall style jokes, which first Beyond the Fringe and then Monty Python swept away – but also because the then richly-detailed soundscape sounds hollow and flat compared to, say The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Or even Cabin Pressure. Or even The Archers. We’re just better at this stuff now. And it’s not particularly close.

Finally, what I think it comes down to is that long running shows depend on familiarity for many of their effects. The first Acorn Antiques sketch has to hit hard, and not rely on audiences being intimately familiar with Crossroads. But Series Six of The Goon Show was designed for the millions of people who’d heard Series Five, many of whom had started with Series One. Once you know who Eccles and Henry Crun and Major Bloodnok and Bluebottle are, you’re waiting with delicious anticipation for them to show up. If you’ve never heard the show before, you’re plunged in at the deep end and without the comforting reassurance of visuals to guide you, it’s easy to get lost in a lot silly voices and harsh sound effects.

And maybe that’s worth bearing in mind too – radio comedy is a dying art. In fact, it’s almost dead (except for podcasts). So for Abigoliah, I chose The Day Today and not On The Hour. If we do Hancock, it’ll almost certainly be the TV shows, not the radio broadcasts. Does anyone even remember that The League of Gentlemen started on radio?

I wonder what she’ll make of I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue?