Basil Fawlty did and got away with it…
I had a conversation with a friend yesterday about how many good short sketches there are set in the Second World War. It seems to have provided a rich seam of laughter from Dad’s Army and Blackadder through to Armstrong & Miller playing RAF pilots speaking teen language, and of course there was the Mitchell & Webb argument about German uniforms. As I’m thinking about funny language today, let’s have a reminder of those.
That’s funny, but it took me a bit of time to hear the word “skull,” instead of “scowl” which was rather amusing, too. As then the SS would have – in English – stood for Scowling Skulls.
We’ve seen several “Hallo, Hallo” shows recently. Very funny, but perhaps after many of them – in and out of closets, windows, doors – it might become less so.
Really liked the old hard-of-hearing mother-in-law in the bed in the attic with the Resistance radio hidden under her, so they had to tip up the end of the bed with her in it to send or receive.
Beyond the Fringe’s “aftermyth of war” is a key text here. The opening chapter of England, Their England is the earliest that occurs to me.
Indeed, let have have a nice cup of hot water..
That’s one of my favourite Mitchell and Webb sketches. Only topped in my humble by the evil genius in the needlessly ambiguous piece:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6cake3bwnY
and plant carrots for the night fighters.
It seems that some of us have similar stand out sketches. I clicked on the blog to put my sixpence (old money) in and mention the Beyond the Fringe sketch only to find that Ken has highlighted the very same.
“We need a futile gesture at this point in the war”
Maybe a bit of a loose connection here but I have just been looking at amazing WW11 colour photos of central London on the ‘Life’ magazine website which all might enjoy. They are strangely contemporary yet weirdly ‘out of time’ – fantastic. Can be seen on:
http://life.time.com/history/world-war-ii-london-in-color/?iid=lf|mostpop#end