Yesterday, I watched the 1941 Leslie Howard film 'Pimpernel Smith', a retelling of The Scarlet Pimpernel set in 1939. I was delighted to find it has what must be at least an extremely early example of a particular type of joke:
That's pretty good, isn't it? Forty years before Ted Stryker met a trombonist in a bar, or Homer Simpson met the Springfield Philharmonic in the woods. Does anyone know of an earlier version? The Goons did it a lot, of course, but not until the '50s.
I recommend the film, by the way- it's on Netflix at the moment (in Britain, anyway), and has some good jokes in it, and an excellent (and excellently cast and costumed) comedy Nazi.
- 'No, no, no. Shakespeare is a German. Professor Schußbacher
has proved it once and for all.'
- 'Dear me, how very upsetting. Still, you must admit that the
English translations are remarkable.'
(I know, I know... I will do the rest of the Double Act blogs eventually. Probably.)