Unintended comedy

I'm old enough to remember the days when radio featured a lot of comedy. Well, perhaps not a lot, but certainly enough to keep me going. I used to love listening to 'Round the Horne', 'Hancocks Half Hour', an old Jimmy Edwards series whose name escapes me and, of course, 'The Goons'. We even had a home grown (Australian) series featuring a character named Greenbottle who was a smart arse after my own heart!

As much as I enjoy modern TV comedy I can't help feeling that we've lost something. *cue the old fart music again*. When all you had were words, sound effects and funny voices it left a lot of room for the imagination. As funny as Al Bundy could be, you were left with the concrete Ed O'Neill playing the role; but I'm sure all of us who've heard Henry Crunn or Neddy Seagoon have our own unique images of them.

I listened avidly, in 1969, to The Goons on Monday nights at 8:00 PM. It annoyed me greatly that my folks, a couple of months later, insisted I must attend judo lessons held in a local hall and which just happened to occur at 8:00 PM on Monday nights! That'd be right. I even, for a short while, entertained the notion that they could be persuaded to play the show over speakers while we tossed each other on the mats. Heck, I was even willing to transport my treasure, a 1952 valve (tube) radio for the purpose.

That plan didn't happen.

The other night as I was driving home I had the car radio on. Should I admit it was Bill O'Reilly? You get your comedy where you can! On came an ad. Let's see how I go transcribing it.

Bling! 'That's the sound of the email containing your picture arriving in your friends inbox'.

Bling! 'That's the sound of your friend forwarding your picture to her friends'.

Bling! 'That's the sound of your friends friend forwarding your picture to her boyfriend'.

Bling Bling! 'That's the sound...' well you get the idea. A few more blings and it becomes clear they're talking about a teenage girl sending a somewhat risque picture of herself in her underwear and how, once it hits the internet, it gets out of hand.

Bling! 'That's the sound of your father receiving...', and then they cut to the next ad in mid sentence.

'Hi. My name's Todd and I used to suffer from erectile dysfunction!'

I cracked up laughing!