Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site ucla-cs.ARPA
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!whuxl!whuxlm!akgua!gatech!seismo!harvard!talcott!panda!genrad!decvax!ittatc!dcdwest!sdcsvax!sdcrdcf!ucla-cs!melnick
From: melnick@ucla-cs.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.games.trivia
Subject: Meta-humor
Message-ID: <7995@ucla-cs.ARPA>
Date: Wed, 11-Dec-85 15:44:35 EST
Article-I.D.: ucla-cs.7995
Posted: Wed Dec 11 15:44:35 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 15-Dec-85 06:48:09 EST
References: <800@h-sc1.UUCP> <2606@sjuvax.UUCP> <1650@cae780.UUCP>
Reply-To: melnick@ucla-cs.UUCP (Alex Melnick)
Distribution: net
Organization: UCLA Computer Science Department
Lines: 25

Monty Python were cited earlier as champions of meta-humor, but a big influence
on them and others were The Goons, a '50's British radio show featuring Harry
Seacombe and Peter Sellers (then an unknown).  An example:

Wallace Greenslade (the announcer who normally did only the sign-on and
sign-off) :  "Ah, Messieurs les prisoniers anglais!  Soyez le bienvenue!"

Harry Seacombe (as a British prison governor (warden), vacationing with 
prisoners and prison in France) :  "What an honor!  It's none other than Wallace
Greenslade, playing the part of the French prefect of police!  And playing it
very badly!"

Greenslade :  "Don't, don't give me away.  It was either this or making tea
for John Snagg!"  (Uproarious laughter from audience and cast.  I'm not sure
who John Snagg is, though.)

And among comic strip meta-humor, who remembers the time that the characters
in Broom Hilda decided that the artist was doing a bad job, so they fired him
and tried drawing themselves and each other? 

Other meta-humor nominees:  the Marx Brothers, the Muppets (towards the end
of The Muppet Movie, we're watching a movie within a movie within a movie).

Good night, and have a pleasant tomorrow.
--Alex Melnick