Tuesday, December 2, 2008

The Godlike Genius of Spike Milligan

Spike Milligan is probably the seminal figure in post-World War II British comedy. He took the Irish penchant for absurdity (See also: James Joyce, Laurence Sterne, Samuel Beckett) and used it to create head-spinning, brilliant insane comedy. His most famous and enduring project was the radio program, The Goon Show and he was an inspiration to the Monty Python crew and generations of comic writers and performers. He also did a lot of TV work, none of which to my knowledge has made it to DVD yet. Here is a bit of lunacy from his show, Q5.

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