History Radio / TheGoonShow

** "Ying tong iddle i po" and "Needle nardle noo", all-purpose catchphrases (most often Neddie's). "It's all in the mind, you know" was also used by everyone, most commonly Grytpype-Thynne. "I don't wish to know that" was also commonly used after someone gave a {{pun}}.

* DrivenToSuicide: Subverted in "King Solomon's Mines". Lord Seagoon, having lost all his money playing cards, takes the only honorable way out... the tradesman's entrance.

** Then there's "The Canal", where Lord Valentine Seagoon keeps buying life insurance for his son Neddie using increasingly unlikely and specific death scenarios ("How much would it cost to insure Neddie against putting concrete blocks on his feet, blowing himself up with dynamite and then landing in the canal?") before, of course, engineering those exact scenarios.

** [[TheyKilledKennyAgain Bluebottle being 'deaded' in almost every episode in which he appears]];
** Bloodnok being introduced in a DescriptionCut to his theme song. Also his {{Unusual Euphemism}}s, taking the form of "X my Ys and Z my As!";
** A splash sound effect as someone falls in a body of water, swiftly followed by Little Jim saying "He's fallen in the wah-tah!";

!!This series includes examples of:

* LoadsAndLoadsOfRoles: Everyone played multiple roles, especially if someone was absent. Sellers sometimes filled in for absentees, but it took four people to fill in for him the day ''he'' was absent.
** For contrast, in certain episodes where Milligan was missing, Sellers filled in for him... and until the credits were announced, no-one listening at home noticed.
** This also happened to characters within the show, e.g.:
-->'''Brutus Moriartus:''' Why don't you stop him, Julius Caesar?\\
'''Bloodnok:''' How can I when I'm playing the part of Bloodnok?
** Or:
-->'''Englishman:''' I am the Manager, the Proprietor, the Head Waiter, and the Chief Cashier of the Restaurant Fred.\\
'''Seagoon:''' Who's Fred?\\
'''Englishman:''' I am!\\
'''Seagoon:''' Gad!\\
'''Englishman:''' Yes - Fred Gad!
** Or:
-->'''Henry Crun:''' Who was that knocking?\\
'''Moriarty:''' It was my friend, Grytpype-Thynne.\\
'''Henry Crun:''' I can't see him.\\
'''Moriarty:''' That's because you were playing him.\\
'''Henry Crun:''' What?\\
'''Moriarty:''' He's never here when you're here.\\
'''Henry Crun:''' I don't understand...\\
'''Moriarty:''' Neither do the audience, that's why this isn't getting a laugh!

** "Ying tong iddle i po" and "Needle nardle noo", all-purpose catchphrases (most often Neddie's). "It's all in the mind, you know" was also used by everyone, most commonly Grytpype-Thynne. "I don't wish to know that" was also commonly used after someone gave an IncrediblyLamePun.

-->'''Bloodnok:''' How that battle raged - I watched it all on television, you know. Seagoon fought like a madman - how else? But alas... On that spot is now a little white stone. Once a year Min lays flowers on it. The stone bears a simple inscription in Hindi - I haven't the heart to tell her that roughly translated it says "Bombay 49 miles".

** "Ying tong iddle i po" and "Needle nardle noo", all-purpose catchphrases (most often Neddie's). "It's all in the mind, you know" was also used by everyone, most commonly Grytpype-Thynne.

* MadLibsCatchPhrase: "(With) X(-o), the new wonder Y-Z'er". Based on a common advertising slogan format on radio in TheFifties. Examples include "Lifo, the new wonder life-giver", "Leggo, the new wonder leg-regrower" and "Brains, the new wonder head-filler".

* NegativeContinuity: Every show started with the full roster of characters, usually involved in a completely different story from last time. Characters would frequently be killed off at the end of an episode (Seagoon in particular), only to be unharmed and alive the following week and with no memory of previous adventures.

* TraumaticHaircut: "The Phantom Head Shaver of Brighton"; This is the tale of QC Hairy Seagoon, in order to prove the innocence of his client Nugent Dirt, tries to track down the mysterious criminal who shaves the heads of the Brighton populace while they sleep.

* WhyAreWeWhispering: In the episode "The Case of the Vanishing Room", Inspector Seagoon arrives at a house where a murder has been committed. The door is answered by Grytptype, who speaks in a whisper, and Seagoon lowers his voice to match. After they've exchanged half-a-dozen lines, another character shouts at them not to leave the door open.

The show had several guests over the years, most often Valentine Dyall, "the Man in Black", who played various similar but distinct roles.

* EvilLaugh: Valentine Dyall's gets a good work-out in "The Canal".

Not to be confused with ''ComicBook/TheGoon'', a comic series about a muscle-bound mob enforcer who fights monsters; nor with Alice the Goon or her relatives in ''Comics/ThimbleTheater''; nor should it be confused with [[Podcast/WelcomeToNightVale any shows that happen to be made by]] [[Website/SomethingAwful goons]], or ''Series/TheGongShow'', or ''Film/TheGoonies'', or ''Series/GoOn'', or ''Film/{{Goon}}''.

** This was in fact a reference to Peter Sellers' own habit of TalkingToHimself (see below).

* InstantlyProvenWrong: In "The Affair of the Lone Banana":
-->'''Seagoon:''' He appeared to he a man of breeding and intellect. \\

-->'''Bluebottle:''' Thinks: ''with these type sweets my prestige will increase at school, yes. Eh, thinks again, if I gave one of them to Winnie Hemp. it might act like a [[LovePotion love philtre]] on her. And then...''[Giggles Luridly]

-->'''Bluebottle:''' Thinks: ''with these type sweets my prestige will increase at school, yes. Eh, thinks again, if I gave one of them to Winnie Hemp. it might act like a [[LovePotion love philtre]] on her. And then...[''Giggles Luridly'']''

* SnapBack: You wouldn't think this would be possible with a show that has NegativeContinuity, but in the 'Tuscan Salami Scandal Greenslade' rides out of the episode on a horse after someone played some music during a musicians strike. When they find a solution (a non-playing musician) there's a sound of script pages being turned back to the start, and somehow Greenslade is back.

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* KillEmAll: Some episodes, due to NegativeContinuity, have endings where most, if not all of the characters die. If they don't all die, there's a chance Bluebottle is a survivor, as a reversal of the usual OnceAnEpisode gag.

* DoubleEntendre

* Unusual Euphemism:

'''Grytpype, narrating:''' But you don't know my address!\\

* {{Corpsing}}: They frequently set each other off, or the studio audience did, or after they flubbed a line. In "The Case of the Missing CD Plates", a running gag involving absurd sped-up cod-Eastern music and nonsense words sets off a storm of giggles that completely halts the show in its tracks for 20 seconds or so.

* LaughingAtYourOwnJokes: Seagoon often laughs hysterically after making some particularly weak pun, and then stops with an '...ahem.' when he realises no-one else joined in.

* PayingInCoins: In the episode "The Canal", Bluebottle (as the accredited agent of Lloyds of London) arrives to pay out insurance of £40,000 — in pennies, counted one by one. He gets as far as 4,000,832 pennies (roughly £16,670) before Eccles drops the hat he's counting them out into, and has to start again.