Editing The Goon Show (section)

===Surrealism===
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''The Goon Show'' has been variously described as "avant-garde", "surrealist", "abstract", and "four dimensional".<ref name=Zinsser>{{citation |date=20 June 1960 |author=Zinsser, William K |author-link=William Zinsser |title=Peter Sellers: An unpredictable, irrepressible, irreverent mimic |magazine= [[Life (magazine)|Life]] |pages=63–70 (see p. 66) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5k4EAAAAMBAJ&q=%22spike+milligan%22&pg=PA66 |access-date=23 August 2010}}</ref> The show played games with the medium of radio itself. Whole scenes were written in which characters would leave, close the door behind themselves, yet still be inside the room. Further to this, characters would announce their departure, slam a door, but it would be another character who had left the room. That character would then beat on the door for re-admittance, the door would open and close and again the wrong character would be locked out.<ref>This example is from "Tales of Montmartre", 18th episode of the 6th series.</ref>

The show paved the way for surreal and alternative humour, as acknowledged by comedians such as [[Eddie Izzard]].<ref name= TheEssentialSpikeMilligan /><sup>:vii</sup> The surreality was part of the attraction for Sellers,<ref name="Life&DeathofSellers"/> and this exacerbated his mental instability especially during the third series.<ref name="Billen " /> 
Many of the sequences have been cited as being visionary in the way that they challenged the traditional conventions of comedy.<ref>{{cite book | editor = Farnes, Norma| title=The Goons: The Story | date=6 November 1997| publisher=Virgin Publishing | location=London | isbn=1-85227-679-7 | pages = 161, 168 | chapter = Eric Sykes' Story | quote = p161 ... The Goon Show was a new departure in comedy ... seemingly free-form style of humour ... p168 ... presented scenes of seemingly uncontrolled anarchy | no-pp = true}}</ref>  In the [[Monty Python|Pythons]]' autobiography, [[Terry Jones]] states "The Goons of course were my favourite. It was the surreality of the imagery and the speed of the comedy that I loved - the way they broke up the conventions of radio and played with the very nature of the medium."<ref name=PythonsbythePythons/>{{rp|73}} This is reiterated by [[Michael Palin]] and [[John Cleese]]. Cleese recalls listening to ''The Goon Show'' as a teenager in the mid-1950s "and being absolutely amazed by its surreal humour. It came at a key stage in my own development and I never missed a show".<ref name= MilliganHisPartInOurLives/>{{rp|150}}