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Spike Milligan (1918–2002)

Author of Adolf Hitler: My Part in his Downfall

147+ Works 9,669 Members 105 Reviews 28 Favorited

About the Author

Series

Works by Spike Milligan

Puckoon (1963) 791 copies
Monty: His Part in My Victory (1976) — Author — 585 copies
The Essential Spike Milligan (2002) 473 copies
The Goon Show Scripts (1972) — Author — 295 copies
Goodbye Soldier (1986) 262 copies
Small Dreams of a Scorpion (1972) 203 copies
Peace Work (1991) 185 copies
More Goon Show Scripts (1973) 172 copies
A Book of Milliganimals (1968) 153 copies
The Little Pot Boiler (1963) 148 copies
Dustbin of Milligan (1961) 143 copies
The Looney: An Irish Fantasy (1987) 123 copies
Badjelly the Witch (1973) — Author — 118 copies
Bedside Milligan (1969) 118 copies
The Bedsitting Room (1970) 84 copies
Gunner Milligan (1995) 82 copies
The Book of the Goons (1974) 82 copies
The Spike Milligan Letters (1977) 69 copies
The Q Annual (1979) 62 copies
Open Heart University (1979) 60 copies
Transports of Delight (1974) 52 copies
The Nation's Favourite Children's Poems (2001) — Foreword — 49 copies
Goblins (1800) 47 copies
The Lost Goon Shows (1987) 46 copies
A Mad Medley of Milligan (1999) 43 copies
Milligan's Ark (1838) 35 copies
The Murphy (2000) 34 copies
Milligan Book of Records (1975) 32 copies
Milligan's Meaning of Life (2011) 27 copies
Dip the Puppy (1974) 18 copies
The Goon cartoons (1982) 17 copies
More Goon Cartoons (1983) 13 copies
More Spike Milligan Letters (1984) 12 copies
Get in the Q Annual (1980) 10 copies
That's Amazing (1988) 9 copies
Mala pinta (2018) 7 copies
The Mirror Running (1987) 7 copies
Spike (2003) 5 copies
Condensed animals (1991) 5 copies
Goon Again (2001) 5 copies
The Bald Twit Lion (1968) 4 copies
The Melting Pot (1983) 3 copies
The Goon Show Classics, Volume 9 (1992) — Performer — 2 copies
The Goon Omnibus (1978) 2 copies
The Goon Show Classics (1996) 2 copies
Goon Show Classics 2 (1996) 1 copy
Box of Books (1984) 1 copy

Associated Works

Monty Python's Life of Brian [1979 film] (1979) — actor — 623 copies
Knights of Madness: Further Comic Tales of Fantasy (1998) — Contributor — 297 copies
History of the World, Part I [1981 film] (1981) — Actor — 218 copies
The Puffin Book of Utterly Brilliant Poetry (1998) — Contributor — 97 copies
The Penguin Book of Irish Comic Writing (1996) — Author, some editions — 25 copies
Animal Stories: Tame and Wild (1979) — Contributor — 23 copies
The Hound of the Baskervilles [1978 film] (2004) — Actor — 18 copies
The Adventures of Barry McKenzie [1972 film] (2007) — Actor — 8 copies
Cricket Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 5, January 1974 (1974) — Contributor — 6 copies
The Best of Spike Milligan (2003) — Actor — 5 copies
The Last Remake of Beau Geste [1977 film] (2014) — Actor — 4 copies
Cricket Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 8, April 1974 (1974) — Contributor — 4 copies
Nothing Solemn: An anthology of comic verse (1973) — Contributor — 3 copies
Penny Points to Paradise [1951 film] — Actor — 2 copies

Tagged

20th century (71) anthology (72) autobiography (392) biography (305) British (73) children (37) children's (63) comedy (285) DVD (93) English (29) fantasy (87) fiction (452) funny (38) goons (47) history (65) humor (1,780) Ireland (33) Irish (27) memoir (153) military (37) Milligan (63) Milligan collection (81) non-fiction (193) novel (33) own (49) paperback (45) penguin (34) poetry (367) radio (46) read (106) satire (51) script (61) short stories (48) signed (29) Spike Milligan (201) The Goon Show (28) to-read (165) unread (49) war (125) WWII (384)

Common Knowledge

Members

Reviews

This book is marketed as an uproariously hilarious spoof of Conan Doyle’s Hound of the Baskervilles. It isn’t.

None of the wit is witty. None of the humor is humorous. All of the 'yucks' fall with a dull thud. Even the illustrations fail to amuse and entertain.

This book is just woefully unfunny.

It’s full of vulgar language, and endlessly repetitive ‘gags’:

“My fee is ten guineas an hour with a down payment of one hundred guineas.”
“Holmes was still wearing one black boot and one brown boot.”
“Quack! Quack! Stop that duck”.
“I was headed toward High Tor where I tort I taw a puddy tat.”

And those four ‘jokes’ comprise a good third of the entire book. In case you missed any one of those tired old chestnuts, don’t worry…Milligan will be recycling them yet again in another page or two. Talk about a needle getting stuck in the groove!

Even the less tired wisecracks fail to provide any laughs:

‘ “What do you make of it?”
“I would make a rice pudding of it.” ’

Pause for laughter...& Cue the crickets.

‘ “You have arms, I suppose?"
“Yes, and legs.” ’

Boy, those crickets sure are getting louder.

‘ “Halloa,” cried Dr. Mortimer, “What is this?”
“This is England,” I said. “I thought you knew.” ’

The crickets are just an incessant noise machine at this point.

If this is representative of Spike Milligan’s work, how in the world did he manage to have a career as a comedian?

Save yourself the aggravation, and just read the original Hound of the Baskervilles instead.
… (more)
½
 
Flagged
missterrienation | 3 other reviews | Jan 19, 2024 |
 
Flagged
Dermot_Butler | 1 other review | Nov 8, 2023 |
Limited, if classic, compilation of Goon Show scripts, enlivened by a plethora of drawings and some priceless character descriptions.
½
 
Flagged
EricCostello | 1 other review | Oct 7, 2023 |
Cabincore lit. Spike navel fluff. Sometimes his nonsense is the funniest thing, sometimes it bellyflops. But there are also two or three pieces in this, screeds almost, although still very short, written during mental breakdowns in the sixties, which are scary and sobering.
 
Flagged
yarb | Aug 2, 2023 |

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Statistics

Works
147
Also by
17
Members
9,669
Popularity
#2,471
Rating
3.8
Reviews
105
ISBNs
352
Languages
5
Favorited
28

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