The Goodies/Funny

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


This is a man. And this isn't.

  • "Radio Goodies", after Graeme goes absolutely looney. Seeing The Smart Guy slash Deadpan Snarker suit up in an Eyepatch of Power and Evil Overlord outfit, treat Tim and Bill as his henchmen, and crazily hiss about pirate post offices and towing Great Britain off to the equator is far more hilarious than it sounds. Or should be, for that matter.

AND NOW... A Walk in the Black Forest.

Bill: You've gone absolutely mad! You're a megalomaniac!
Graeme: I'm not!
Bill and Tim: [sing-songy] You're a mega~lo~man~i~ac! You're a mega~lo~man~i~ac!
Graeme: [jumping up and down] I'M NOT, I'M NOT, I'M NOT!

    • Then the boat starts sinking...

Bill: Come on, we'd better save him!
Tim: No!
Bill: What?
Tim: It's... Better this way.
Bill: He's our friend!
Tim: No, Bill. The friend we once knew has gone. That... Creature, out there sinking in the ocean, is something else. The hapless victim of his own terrible thirst for power. Let him go. He... would have wanted it... this way.
(Beat)
Bill: No he bloody wouldn't!

    • After Graeme's futile efforts to stop the boat sinking, he goes down dramatically... only to pop up a moment later and splutter "I've changed my mind!"
    • The bit where Graeme and the others have a fight. One of them recites the Radio Goodies jingle and Graeme, as he's storming out, turns back and completes it before leaving.
    • The first signs that show Graeme's gone a bit loopy.

Graeme: Good morning, men! How's it all going?
Tim: Very badly... we need more staff.
Graeme: Ah, well, don't worry about that -- I've just ordered two million extra carrier pigeons and a thousand homing kangaroos.
Bill: Kang... kangaroos?! What for?
Graeme: Parcel post! (mimes putting a parcel in a pouch, skipping over to Tim and Bill)

    • The mobile post boxes.
  • The final showdown in "Bunfight at the OK Tearooms". All the more so when one learns that for the shot where Graeme shoots himself with the ketchup squirters and hurls himself to the ground, he padded his costume so as not to injure himself when he landed... only to hit the tarmac face first.
    • According to Bill Oddie, "He had to be carted off, with blood and teeth all over the place... that's the sort of thing that made us laugh."
  • Their rendition of the song Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

Tim: Who wants to be a millionaire?
Graeme: I do... DON'T!

It really shouldn't be that funny. It's an out-of-the-blue musical number, for Pete's sakes. But it is.

Naked Woman: Now what are you going to do?
Tim (After giving her a look): {{[[[Camp Gay]] Camply}}] I'm going to wash these clothes.

  • The Captain Fishface advert from "It Might as Well Be String".
    • As well as the final act of the episode, in which Tim goes after "string magnates" Graeme and Bill in a bid to denounce the evils of string and gets caught on the wrong end of a series of parody ads. Although most of today's audiences will not recognise many of the adverts being parodied, it represents one of their better extended fast-paced slapstick sequences, culminating in an overflowing washing machine flooding the entire studio building with soap suds, which then cover the screen... until they are wiped away by the three Goodies, who then sit back with cups of tea and pass comment on the closing credits (which are being displayed in mirror image as though the audience is inside the television looking out).
  • The climax of "The Movies". The three rival films - Tim's Roman epic, Graeme's western, and Bill's silent comedy - all cross over until the proceedings fall into utter chaos... and utter hilarity.
    • The special effects and creativity are still staggering even by today's standards, but special mention must go to one scene—Bill puts a movie in a film projector. There's a brief countdown, and then the movie starts, with Graeme stopping by to look. It's a simple scene of a car driving towards the camera. Graeme watches it in silence for a few seconds...and then catches on, diving out of the way right before the car drives through the wall. Bill's smug, triumphant grin as he walks off is priceless.
  • Numerous scenes from "The Goodies Rule - OK?", but special mention should go to the final act battle royale between the Goodies and the (literal) puppet government, climaxing with the trio being chased by a giant Dougal and Zebedee, the latter bouncing fifty feet into the air and booming "TIME FOR BED!!" as a battle cry.
  • The "Sing a Song of Flowers" sequence from "Hype Pressure". As with several other Goodies episodes, the cultural references have faded from the memory (the programme on which Bill and Graeme are performing (Superficial) is a parody of 1970s pop showcase Supersonic, and Tim is channelling its director, Mike Mansfield), but the chaos that ensues as Tim cues more and more special effects (beginning with showers of petals and building up to land mines) until Bill and Graeme are forced to flee for their lives is ageless and hilarious.

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