Editing The Goon Show (section)

==Running jokes==
{{main|The Goon Show running jokes}}

===Lurgi===
{{anchor|Lurgy}}
{{hatnote|[[Lurgy (river)]] is a small river near [[Kilmacrennan]] in Donegal in Ireland.}}
{{See also|Cooties}}
Several of the words and phrases invented for the show soon entered common usage, the most famous being the word [[wikt:lurgy|lurgi]]. In the episode "Lurgi Strikes Britain", Spike Milligan introduced the fictional malady of Lurgi (sometimes spelled Lurgy), which has survived into modern usage to mean the common cold, or any miscellaneous or non-specific illness (often preceded by the adjective "dreaded"). The symptoms of Lurgi included the uncontrollable urge to cry "Eeeeyack-a-boo", though even during the episode the ailment proved to be an extortionate attempt to sell [[brass band]] musical instruments. Milligan was later to make up his own definition in ''[[Treasure Island According to Spike Milligan]]'', where Jim Hawkins' mother describes it as "like brown spots of shit on the liver".<!-- Please put non goon related lurgi references under the Wikipedia entry for lurgy -->

===Brandyyy!===
Alcohol was strictly forbidden during rehearsals and recording, so the cast fortified themselves with milk. The milk in turn was fortified with brandy. In later episodes the catchphrase "round the back for the old brandy!" or "the old Marlon Brando" was used to announce the exit of one or more characters, or a break for music. In "The Pam's Paper Insurance Policy" (Series 9, Episode 4), Ray Ellington, before his musical item begins, muses, "I wonder where he keeps that stuff!". In "The Scarlet Capsule" (Series 9, Episode 14), Ellington's reply to Secombe's cry of "Time for Ray Ellington and the old BRANDYYY there" was "The introductions he gives me...".  In "The Moon Show" (Series 7, Episode 18), Ellington sympathises with the listeners, stating "Man, the excuses he makes to get to that brandy!", causing Milligan, Sellers and Secombe to wail "MATE!" in protest. However, Milligan got his own back by making Ellington laugh halfway through the song by doing Minnie Bannister voices while Ellington was singing.<ref>{{cite book | last = Wilmut | first = Roger |author2=Jimmy Grafton | title = The Goon Show Companion - A History and Goonography | year = 1976 | publisher = Robson Books | location = London | isbn = 0-903895-64-1 | page = 62 | chapter = Produced by Pat Dixon | quote = Possibly the cast's brandy-and-milk in the back room had a little to do with it (those cries of "round the back for the old brandy" before the musical items are not there just for effect!).}}</ref>

===Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb!===
During radio programmes of the 1920s and 1930s, the background noise for crowd scenes was often achieved by a moderately large group of people mumbling "[[Rhubarb (sound effect)|rhubarb]]" under their breath with random inflections. This was often parodied by Milligan, who would try to get the same effect with only three or four people, clearly intoning the word rather than mumbling. After some time, Secombe began throwing in "custard" during these scenes (for example, in "The Fear of Wages<ref>{{cite web|url=http://goonshowscripts.afraid.org/raw/series06/s06e25.html|title=The Fear of Wages|website=Goonshowscripts.afraid.org|access-date=2 July 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070310163150/http://goonshowscripts.afraid.org/raw/series06/s06e25.html|archive-date=10 March 2007|url-status=dead}}</ref> and Wings Over Dagenham", where the phrase was amended to 'flying rhubarb').<ref>{{cite web|url=http://goonshowscripts.afraid.org/raw/series07/s07e15a.html|title=Wings Over Dagenham|website=Goonshowscripts.afraid.org|access-date=2 July 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070310144700/http://goonshowscripts.afraid.org/raw/series07/s07e15a.html|archive-date=10 March 2007|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===Raspberry blowing===
As well as being used as a comic device randomly inserted into different sketches to avoid silence, the [[Blowing a raspberry|blowing of raspberries]] entered the Goons as Harry Secombe's signal to the other actors that he was going to crack up; you would hear a joke from him, a raspberry, and a stream of laughter.  In the Goons' musical recording "The Ying-Tong Song", Milligan performed a solo for raspberry-blower, as one might for tuba or baritone saxophone.  Milligan made much use of a rather surreal [[Columbia Records]] 78RPM sound effects disc, catalogue number YB20,<ref>{{cite web|title=Columbia label 78 rpm Sound Effects records |url=http://78records.cdbpdx.com/SEFF/ |website=78records.cdbpdx.com |access-date=24 September 2024}}</ref> which bears the innocuous title "Donkey" on the label. Approximating possibly the most obscene and flatulent noise ever recorded, it appeared first in the show "The Sinking of Westminster Pier" as a sound to accompany an oyster called Fred opening its shell; it thereafter became known as Fred the Oyster, and appears as such in the scripts.  This recording was often used as a reaction to a bad joke. Examples include ''[[The Last Goon Show of All]]'' during which Neddie shouts old jokes into a fuel tank in order to "start the show".

Years later, Milligan collaborated with [[Ronnie Barker]] on ''[[The Phantom Raspberry Blower of Old London Town]]'' in which the credits read, "Raspberries professionally blown by Spike Milligan".  [[David Jason]] has also claimed to have produced the sound effect and indeed was credited with this in the second segment of Ronnie Barker's [[LWT]] series ''[[Six Dates with Barker]]'' (1971).

==="Trapped in a piano"===
In several shows, one character, typically either Henry Crun or Minnie Bannister, would be found trapped in a piano.  In ''The Mystery of the Fake Neddie Seagoon'', Crun was inside a piano and his speech was accompanied by suitable piano noises.  In ''The Jet-Propelled Guided NAAFI'', Moriarty is hiding in a piano disguised as one of the strings.  Grytpype-Thynne plays a "do-re-mi" scale to find him – Moriarty is "me". When Moriarty escapes, he is two feet taller than he used to be -- someone sent in a piano tuner.

The "in a piano" joke was re-used one last time in ''[[The Last Goon Show of All]]''.

===Other references===
Sometimes characters were introduced as "scion of the house of Rowton", or "member of Rowton House".  This was a reference to the "[[Rowton Houses]]", which were hostels for working men in London.