The Goodies (TV Series) Scoutrageous (1977) User Reviews

Scoutrageous

[Prismark10 · 9/10 · 16 November 2022]

This episode is a good example as to how The Goodies were popular with kids but not quite a kids show. Despite what John Cleese might have exclaimed at them once.

I sensed here the humour of the Pythons and even Spike Milligan with a few jokes that a modern audience might find a bit risque and off colour.

Bill and Graeme decide to follow Tim as he has been going out each night wearing a mac and a bin liner on his head. They find out that Tim is a Scoutmaster leading a troop of geriatric scouts.

They decide to join the scouts but pretty soon Tim throws them out for not taking the rules seriously. Especially as they made up scout badges they strive to get.

So Bill and Graeme start their own scout troop and commence a protection racket. Later they commit crimes leading to the government declaring the scout movement be banned.

There is even the post of Scoutfinder General (Frank Windsor) who searches for hidden scouts. Tim is took taken away for questioning.

Later Tim goes looking for the Scout bandits with his own Salvation Army.

Underneath the zaniness, there is a parody of McCarthyism. Windsor is suitably sinister while having a great time.

Watching Scoutrageous almost 5 decades later. It is outrageous fun.

"Who Were Those Masked Scouts?"

[ShadeGrenade · 10/10 · 28 April 2007]

Bill and Graeme notice their friend Tim behaving in an odd fashion. Each night, he goes out, wearing a grubby mac, a bin liner on his head, and creeps about the deserted streets like someone with a guilty secret. They follow him to a hut, where Tim is Scoutmaster of a troupe of ancient Scouts. Bill and Graeme find this hilarious. But it does not stop them from joining.

They use their Scout credentials to commit crimes, such as stealing wigs, and demanding protection money. Tim throws them out of his troupe, so they set up on their own. Such is the scale of their crime wave that the Government officially declares the Boy Scout Movement an illegal organisation. A petrified Tim is forced to testify before the sinister Scoutfinder General...

"The Goodies have had it. They are no longer funny. They are making fun of organisations unable to answer back!", raged an angry 'Sun' reader, hot on the heels of this episode's transmission. Actually, 'The Goodies' was not the first comedy show to ridicule the Scouts. Spike Milligan did it in 'Q6', and 'The Two Ronnies' did a splendid take-off of 'The Gang Show' in 1972. History does not record a sharp decline in Boy Scout membership as a result of this programme, which proves if nothing else that some people just do not have a sense of humour. I was a Scout once and I found this episode hilarious! Guest star Frank Windsor, of 'Z Cars' and 'Softly, Softly' fame, turns in a creepy performance as the Joe McCarthy-like 'Scoutfinder General'.

On being released from custody, Tim joins the Salvation Army, which expands to include a Navy and Air Force ( ! ). In a stunning climax, the Masked Scouts ( Bill and Graeme ) are attacked by all three. Graeme's ace up his sleeve is a homemade atom bomb. As soon as the pin is pulled, however, it deflates like a punctured balloon.

Funniest moment - The Scoutfinder General trapping Tim into admitting Scout membership by drumming a beat with his fingers, which turns into a chorus of 'We're Riding Along On The Crest Of A Wave'!

I still remember this episode!

[hypercomms2001 · 10/10 · 6 June 2021]

This was classic... especially the bit about the gaining your "World Domination" Badge....