My personal theory about The Goon Show et. al. :
The Goon show started in 1951, when the memory was still fresh of the world crazily tearing itself apart in WW2 - ending with 2 nuclear explosions, *actual use of atomic weapons*. It took 18 months to demobilise all the armed forces. The full horrors of the Final Solution had been exposed through a full year of war crimes trials.The infrastructure of the UK had been pounded through bombing, overuse, and under-maintentance, which would take years to put right. It would be a rare person not somehow touched by loss. Petrol Rationing had only *just* ended on 26 May 1950. Even after all they had endured, peace was not certain; the seeds were being sown for the Cold War and the threat of Nuclear War. The need for the Berlin airlift a few years earlier had shown how quickly alliances could turn sour.

So, even several years after VE day, hardships are still felt. Put bluntly, yes people needed something, *anything*, to laugh at; where else can you go after madness but surrealism?

Comments welcome.

edit: correction. Some forms of Rationing in fact continued until 1954.
(The Incredible Sulk Finally remembered his password on, Tue 3 Sep 2013, 16:12, 2 replies)

Fake and gay.

( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Tue 3 Sep 2013, 16:24, closed)

This does nothing to explain Ted Ray.
Nor The Navy Lark
And just how fearful of Armageddon must one be to think that ventriloquism will work on the radio?
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Tue 3 Sep 2013, 17:28, closed)

Shows with a military theme like the Navy Lark were still topical as nearly every adult male had done military service in the war
and lots of women too, so people'd get all the jokes.

The main joke in Round The Horne was the campness at a time when homosexuality was still illegal. Hard to grasp now how naughty and subversive that was.
(Juan Quar is clinging to her front teeth on, Tue 3 Sep 2013, 19:14, closed)

I'm quite capable of grasping the subversiveness of Julian & Sandy, but you're not answering the most pressing question of all:
WHY WAS THERE A RADIO SERIES BASED AROUND A VENTRILOQUIST'S ACT?
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Tue 3 Sep 2013, 22:07, closed)

maybe the dummy gave good head on the casting couch

(andythepieman Is surfing the waves of indifference on, Wed 4 Sep 2013, 9:45, closed)

Nothing disturbing about that image.

( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Wed 4 Sep 2013, 10:17, closed)

to a bomb happy bbc executive
who had been blown up at Casino
(andythepieman Is surfing the waves of indifference on, Thu 5 Sep 2013, 14:18, closed)