Some time ago I was told of an old Bernard Manning gag. It was cruel, clever and funny at the same time.
The gag concerned Sir Terry Waite, the Archbishop of Canterbury envoy who was held hostage by Islamists for 1,763 days.
The Manning gag goes like this: “I bumped into Terry Waite the other day and asked what he was doing he was doing. He said he was shortly going on BBC’s Mastermind.
“I asked what his specialist subject was? He replied; ‘Beirut radiators 1987-1991′.”
In the time since I heard that gag I must have retold it a thousand times and it never fails to bring the house down.
A couple of months back I had an idea of staging a night of 60s, 70s and 80s jokes. I contacted Jim Davidson to ask his advice on how to get it off the ground.
He asked his “people” and the response was negative for two reason: 1) No hall would be prepared to take the publicity generated by the Left against the evening. 2) There aren’t any comedians who would tell the gags.
I tell the story in the light of the disgraceful decision by the BBC to pull an episode of The Repair Shop after a TV production worker objected to a “sexist” Bob Monkhouse joke.
The comedian’s famous joke books (he died in 2003) had been brought into the studio for repair by Abigail Williams, his adopted daughter, and his old writing partner Colin Edmonds.
The restoration of the books was to be filmed at the show’s barn in Singleton, West Susses, for a special tribute programme.
However, a member of the production company which makes the series, Ricochet, complained about one of the Monkhouse jokes, claiming it was sexist.
The gag was probably written in the 1960s. Not to say it wasn’t funny, just wasn’t to the taste of the employee.
I looked up Monkhouse’s old gags and some were like this: “I’m not saying my wife’s a bad cook but she uses a smoke alarm as a timer.”
Another said: “I’m still having sex at 75, which is helpful as I live at 74.”
Good old knockabout stuff. There were thousands of his jokes which had been stored in suitcases under Mr Edmond’s desk. What was the particular gag that so upset the employee? I would love to hear it.
I think we should know the identity of that employee and he or she should come forward to explain why they were so upset. They don’t mind robbing millions of pleasure, so the least they can do is explain themselves.
The alternative would have to been for Ricochet to let the employee go. They could then find work where they wouldn’t be annoyed about a joke and the company could fulfil its production contract.
Why the BBC thought it right to cave-in on the issue is beyond me. A good chunk of its audience which is forced to pay just shy of £200 or go to jail for a lot of woke crap, would have loved to hear it and got great pleasure that it annoyed all the lefties out there.
As they sat around the TV they could collectively have raised two fingers to that employee.