I’m thrilled to see that AbeBooks has sparked a mini revival for Spike Milligan’s 1971 memoir, Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall. The book came in 10th on our recent survey of funniest books according to our British customers and is currently the bestselling book from all the titles featured on this page.
My father loved Spike Milligan (he had been brought up on The Goons of Milligan, Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe) and always watched his surreal Q show in the mid-1970s. Thanks to Q, I got my first glimpse of shapely naked female breasts and I will always remember Spike with fondness for that alone. As he got older, Milligan did less and less but when he appeared on a talk show I always stopped everything to watch. Like Peter Cook, Milligan was never predictable and his humour was often extremely weird.
Last year, I read a biography of Milligan by his former manager, Norma Farnes, called Spike: An Intimate Memoir. I learnt a lot about Milligan. I hadn’t known he suffered from mental illness and in some ways it explained much of his humour.
It’s been interesting to see US-based bloggers looking at the list of funniest books. Many of them haven’t heard of Milligan. Check out this clip of vintage Milligan talking about his favourite subject - Adolf Hitler. Would you ever see Chris Rock wearing a woolly bobble hat like that?
Thanks for the tip on the biography. Over the past few years, I’ve become a fan of The Goon Show (and other old Brit comedies such as The Navy Lark and Doctor in the House) thanks to BBC Radio.
I also get a laugh from Spike Milligan’s poetry.
In the Land of the Bumbley Boo
In the land of the Bumbley Boo
The People are red white and blue,
They never blow noses,
Or ever wear closes,
What a sensible thing to do!
In the land of the Bumbley Boo
You can buy Lemon pie at the zoo;
They give away foxes
In little Pink Boxes
And Bottles of Dandylion Stew.
In the land of the Bumbley Boo
You never see a Gnu,
But thousands of cats
Wearing trousers and hats
Chorus
Oh, the Bumbley Boo! the Bumbley Boo!
That’s the place for me and you!
So hurry! Let’s run!
The train leaves at one!
For the land of the Bumbley Boo!
The wonderful Bumbley Boo-Boo-Boo!
The Wonderful Bumbley BOO!!!