Now that all the Goons (including Bentine) are finally gone, some appreciation of the Goon Show's central place in twentieth century humour can be made. From its fertile loins sprang the Python series and movies, the exasperatingly uneven but lunatic 'Q' series, and even The Goodies. Goonery was a gentle humour of punning, semantics, mind imagery and class satire. No archetype of English life was left spared, from the military to officious doormen, spinsters, cads, upper-class homosexuals and wandering minstrels. All this was done with a deft mixture of mimicry, inspired lunacy and sometimes groan-inducing music hall clangers. There were no swear words, violent images (except of course for Bluebottle being regularly 'deaded' at the end of each episode, much like South Park's Kenny) or intellectual pretensions, and no need. To listen to the Goons now is to be transported back to a world of ration cards, London bomb sites and dusty vaudeville halls beginning with the immortal words of Wallis Greenslade - "This is the BBC". To listen is also to recapture a certain innocence, never to be seen again. I have often thought of Spike Milligan as the James Joyce of 20th century humour. His recent death filled me with as much sadness as the death of a relative. Vale, the Goons
