BOOKED

a long long time ago, when i was in matriculation college somehwhere in australia, i discovered an australian radio comedy show - a rerun of a comedy show that first started way back in the nineteen thirties - which was aired for fifteen minutes each evening and always make me late for dinner. and not only that. looking back i think it influenced me in quite a significant way, subconsciously at least.

we were staying in a bording house at that time , and it was the only time i ever experienced a boarding house life - of some sort. the boarding house was on 287 macquarie street and run by a very kind lady whom everybody called 'mother hen' and her husband who was one of the kindest persons i ever met in my life. he was a man of few words and always uttered in the softest voice which made it difficult to hear. everything he did seem measured, in slow motion and he walked like a tortoise. we called him 'duffy'. till now i never get to know the real mother hen's and duffy's names. they had a helper who seems to me a stereotypical australian old kindly servant. overweight, had a big nose ,looked somewhat like a gypsy and very talkative, which she uttered in thick aussie accent and she treated us like children. and we called her by her real name. Thelma. but till this day i did not know her surname.

no one else seemed interested in the show apart from me,and i was absolutely addicted to it. and as i say because of this show i always come to dinner table late which did not please anybody especially thelma who punished me by not giving me scones. that was her forte, making scones i remember. but that was all right because i hate scones. her's were hard as rock anyway.

at that time i didn't know very much about western culture's obsession with time and punctuality and thelma always asked me why i was late and i would say, i was listening to yes, what. she obviously knew about the show because she started calling me greenbottle.

and here's the little confession; that was how i get to choose my name here as greenbottle. and it has nothing to do with flies although there are species of flies commonly known as bluebottles and greenbottles but it has everything to do with greenbottle of yes, what comedy show.

there is a very good description of this show which you can read here.

an excerpt:-


"Yes, What?" is an Australian radio comedy series, recorded in the late 1930s and early 1940s. It was originally known as "The Fourth Form at St Percy's". It is set in a school and features Dr Percy Pym , the school master, who was easily flustered, and incapable of controlling his rowdy students.

The class was improbably small, with only three students, aged fourteen: Bottomly, Standforth, and Greenbottle. Later in the series, after Greenbottle left, de Pledge joined the series. Later still, when Greenbottle returned, there were four students for a while.

The show received its name from the habit of Greenbottle to frequently say, "Yes," to which Dr Pym would reply, "Yes, What?" from which Greenbottle would launch into some long explanation about something. The class never seemed to learn anything. There was always some distraction. Greenbottle was more often than not late. Just as Dr Pym was starting to get the class under control, Greenbottle would arrive with some lengthy excuse to delay the proceedings even further....

and here's a description of greenbottle character from the same site


Greenbottle always had an excuse for being late, but it was never a simple excuse. It would take much of (if not all of) the episode to explain why he was late. Greenbottle was the one who often said "Yes" for no reason at all, prompting Dr Pym to answer, "Yes, What?" before Greenbottle launched into another explanation for something...

the good news is this series is now available here and i may check it out sometimes.

and here's how this site described the series:-

Before DVD's, before VCR's, before TV, there was Greenbottle; the outrageously cunning school kid always out to put one over the headmaster.

Originally produced in the 1930's at 5AD, Adelaide, Yes What ? was to become one of the nation's most loved comic adventures.

the reason for all this little confession is actually in response to rox uncut's comment about her ancestry , which was a reaction to my previous post on sufiah which incidently mentioned another roxanne who was a prostitute! and it tickled me to no end that roxanne find it necessary to give a lengthy explanation that no! she's no such thing....which you can read it all here with all the lengthy discussion in the comments on the shall we say 'issue'...

No, I'm Roxanne - the first light of dawn - nicknamed after my noble ancestor Roxanne, the legal wife of Alexander the Great.

but what tickled me even more and made me grinned like a mad cheshire cat was her hilarious description in the same post about the drunk throwing euros at her while she was walking in the redlight district of hamburg! i don't know what to make of it, but life can be very funny sometimes.

which reminds me of what happened to one of my randy goats friend recently. he had this girl - a very young girl of eighteen - and brought to his hotel room. and here's how he described it. i've never seen such a beautiful creature in my life! absolutely fresh looking. so fair skinned! with the most well rounded little breasts with little pink nipples! and down there! not even a single hair! just a hint of a few tufts of the softest downy hairs! the most voluptous venus i've seen and she lay there like a goddess! and she kept on saying 'you like?' you like? you like? and i said yes, yes, yes, oh god yes! and started humping away. and only when i finished i realised that the fucking curtain was wide open and my room was on the ground floor!

and now he's worried sick that perhaps somebody might have taken pictures or filmed everything ! but i said don't worry, the worst would be some lucky gardener watering plants outside and happily jerking off into potted orchids outside his window.

hmmm... like that episode in life of brian... when he was dangling on the cross and her mum mandy said this memorable line...


I might have known it would... end up like this. Sex, sex. That's.....all young people are interested in nowadays. I don't know what the world's coming to.

but anyway, so i thought i might explain a little about MY ancestry which is not terribly impressive compared to roxanne's i'm afraid. i came from nothing , mere imagination. which suits me fine actually.

like another episode in life of brian.... when he was dangling on the cross and his cheeky neighbour who was crucified beside him said this memorable line...

Cheer up, Brian. You know what they say....Nothing will come from nothing.... Always look on the bright side of life!

if you can say that while being nailed to the cross, well, that cheers me up no end...

and another little confession... my trinity (that word again!) of comedic influence ...yes, what...the gong show...and the monty phyton and the flying circus....