Saturday, May 29, 2010

The funniest man of all time: Spike Milligan- comedian,actor, write and poet


Spike Milligan, who I reckon was perhaps the funniest man of all time, was also a published poet. Yesterday I bought 2 "hard to find" collections of all his writings, including his poetry, from a second hand book shop. Here are a couple of his children's poems. I enjoy his wicked and weird sense of the ridiculous.

A Silly Poem
Said Hamlet to Ophelia
I'll draw a sketch of thee,
What kind of pencil shall I use
2B or not 2B?

On the Ning Nang Nong


On the Ning Nang Nong
Where the cows go Bong!
and the monkeys all say BOO!
There's a Nong Nang Ning
Where the trees go Ping!
And the tea pots jibber jabber joo.
On the Nong Ning Nang
All the mice go Clang
And you just can't catch 'em when they do!
So its Ning Nang Nong
Cows go Bong!
Nong Nang Ning
Tress go ping
Nong Ning Nang
The mice go Clang
What a noisy place to belong
is the Ning Nang Ning Nang Nong!!

The Bedside Milligan 1969

An Ear passed me
the other day
And silently
went on its way
I wonder who
that ear can be
And has it ever
heard of me?

Said the mother Tern
to her baby tern
Would you like a brother?

Said baby Tern
to mother Tern
Yes
One good Tern deserves another

copyright Spike Milligan

2 comments:

AnnieM said...

very enjoyable and I agree Spike Milligan was one of the funniest

Colin Penter said...

Hi Annie, Thanks for visiting. Yes there was no one like Spike was there. I was talking to someone else about the post and we were discussing Spike's memorable cameo in Life of Brian. Since you are a Life of Brian fan you will remember this performance of Spike

Here is Spike unscripted in his cameo in one of the funniest scenes from Monty Python's Life of Brian. Comedic genius

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uywIYQEHZLs