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From: melnick@ucla-cs.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.jokes
Subject: More Meta-humor
Message-ID: <8042@ucla-cs.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 13-Dec-85 15:09:23 EST
Article-I.D.: ucla-cs.8042
Posted: Fri Dec 13 15:09:23 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 15-Dec-85 00:40:16 EST
Reply-To: melnick@ucla-cs.UUCP (Alex Melnick)
Organization: UCLA Computer Science Department
Lines: 38
Summary: Goons and Muppets strike back!

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?

And one from my favorite meta-humor movie, The Muppet Movie:

Kermit and Fozzie encounter a band of strangers (who constitute a strange
band).  Fozzie starts to recap the entire movie for the newcomers, but
Kermit interrupts, saying "You can't tell them everything that's happened.
You'll bore the audience!"  Fozzie does a perfect double-take, then asks
"But how will they (the band) know what's going on?"  Kermit:  "Let them
read the script!"

This reminds me of a similar joke in The Road to (I think) Morocco, when
Hope starts recounting their adventures, and Crosby says "Why are you
telling me all this?  I already know."  Hope replies, "Yes, but the people
who just walked in don't know."  Crosby responds, "They just walked in!
You mean they missed my song?!"

--Alex Melnick

"But somehow it isn't only not just the words, isn't it?"