History Series / TheGoodies

-->"All I've ever done is tried to help people! I helped the Russians with their nerve gas, I helped the Americans with their H-Bomb, I helped the British with their anthrax — I even helped the Nazis! Now how generous can you get?"
* AmusingInjuries

** Ecky Thump: it's a "martial art" Bill learned when he was younger that basically revolves around hitting people with black pudding.

* BarSlide: Occurs in ''Bunfight at the O.K. Tearooms''. The surly barmaid slides two dainty teacups down the bar to Tim and Bill, who fail to catch them.

** And in one episode they blew up the BBC Television centre!

* BoomerangComeback: In the infamous scene in ''Ecky Thump'', where Bill is proving "Ecky Thump" is superior to other martial arts. Graeme misses with a boomerang, but later when Tim has disarmed Bill with some bagpipes, it comes back and clouts Tim from behind.

** Bill mentions in the commentary that he really didn't have any idea what the other two were doing.

** In one episode, JohnCleese cameos, deriding the Goodies as a "Kid's show." (In real life, the [[MontyPython Pythons]] and the Goodies were (mostly) friendly rivals.)

* CapturedByCannibals: One episode had the lads placed in a native cooking-pot. They got out of it by encouraging the natives to cook "human clear soup" - the point being that when cooking clear soup you remove the meat before serving.

* CatapultNightmare: In ''Kitten Kong', Tim returns home determined to wreck vengeance on [[FluffyTheTerrible Twinkles the kitten]] after his disasterous attempt to walk the over-active purrball. Graeme and Bill caution him that it's not a very good idea, then open the door to reveal that thanks to Graeme's growth formula the kitten has [[AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever grown to enormous size]]. Tim screams hysterically, and then wakes up in bed crying: "Get it off me! Stop licking me!" (Bill: "I'm not licking you!") Unfortunately it's not AllJustADream.
* CaveMouth: In "The Stone Age" The Goodies go caving. They find a remarkable CaveMouth. They note the curving rows of stalagmites and stalactites and treat the odd red thing [[hottip:* :uvula]] like a punching bag. The giant dinosaur, naturally, closes its mouth on them.

* ClownCarBase: In ''Skatty Safari'' the Rolf Harris plague has a take-off of the Pied Piper of Hamlin, which includes the Rolf Harris "attacking the babies in their cradles". Later when the Goodies draw them out of the city by playing "Waltzing Matilda" on didgeridoos, an endless stream of Rolfs are seen clambering out of the one baby carriage.

* CreditsGag: ''It Might as Well be String'' ends with the camera looking through the backwards credits on the TV screen at the Goodies, who are sitting on a couch making snide remarks about the episode they've just watched.

* DemBones: In one episode the Goodies are operating their own hospital. Graeme gets a patient to step behind an X-Ray screen, which naturally displays his skeleton. The skeleton then walks out from the other side of the screen, causing Graeme to flee in terror (this scene is included in The Goodies opening montage).

* DodgyToupee: Several appear in ''Scoutrageous'' when Graeme and Bill are trying to earn their Wig Spotter's Badge.
* DogWalksYou: In ''Kitten Kong'' Tim gets dragged along by a kitten (and over some dog poo that happened to be there when they were filming the scene, what makes it worse is that that shot was filmed with stop motion, so Tim was dragged through the dog poo slowly).
* DontTouchItYouIdiot: This is played with in the very first episode, as the Crown Jewels have a sign placed by them reading "Please Do Not Steal". It doesn't do much good.

* DrivingADesk: ''Punky Business'' parodied this and then subverted it, the three Goodies are in the back of a van and we see the road in the vans back windows via backscreen projection, then it starts playing footage of punks. The subversion comes when Bill shoves Graeme and Tim out of the back of the van and we see a screen being watched by several policemen with the punk footage projected onto it.

* EekAMouse: Referenced in ''Kitten Kong'', where a black housekeeper (suspiciously similar to the one in Tom and Jerry, we even hear her shouting for "Thomas") jumps on the table and shrieks at the sight of the team dressed as mice.

* EgomaniacHunter: "Dodonuts" has Tim and Graeme as leaders of the Endangered Species Club who hunt down endangered species, including a dodo protected by conservationist Bill Oddie.
* EleventyZillion: In the episode "Culture for the Masses" Tim buys a painting at an auction for "one million billion quintillion zillion pounds and two and a half new pence", which it goes without saying that he does not have. They leave thirteen pence as a deposit. By ContrivedCoincidence, the National Gallery have all their paintings insured for exactly one million billion quintillion zillion pounds. HilarityEnsues.

* EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys: ''The Funky Gibbon'' — the greatest novelty hit of The Goodies.

* FacialCompositeFailure: ''Lighthouse Keeping Loonies'' has two identikit pictures of suspects for some crime who resemble some high-up members of the Royal Family.
* FatalFamilyPhoto: Parodied and Lampshaded in an episode of The Goodies. When one Nazi sentry starts showing his partner a photo of his girlfriend in Dusseldorf, the other starts telling him to put it away and ends up screaming at the top of the lungs to the British commandos he is certain are about to leap and murder them that he is not with this guy.

** Also, in "Punky Business", Graeme has gotten to work as a waiter in a punk restaurant. When Tim orders the sauce, he gets it all over his head.

** In "Punky Business", Graeme dumps Tim's spaghetti dinner over Tim's head as part of the punk experience at his restaurant "Trattoria Punk".

* FootprintsOfMuck: In ''Kitten Kong'' episode the ComicTrio follow the huge paw prints of Tinkles the Kitten across London on their three-seater bicycle, and keep running into things because the giant purrball can just step over objects they can't.

* FriendToAllLivingThings: After Tim Brooke-Taylor becomes Bigfoot (his right foot has swollen from walking around the sides of mountains, looking for legendary creatures) he retreats to the wild (so people will stop laughing themselves to death over the sight of his enormous foot) and becomes friends to all the animals, who join him in a rendition of the "Bigfoot" theme song.
* FunnyBackgroundEvent: In ''U-Friend Or UFO'', Tim and Graeme discuss their sensitive UFO sensing equipment. Meanwhile, Bill is abducted.

* GaussianGirl: Parodied, Bill and a woman are in soft focus whilst kissing, when he suddenly stops, runs up to the camera and wipes the petroleum jelly off the lens.

* GetAHoldOfYourselfMan: Played for comedy in an episode of The Goodies. Tim is in hysterics. Graeme lightly slaps him. Tim is silent for about two seconds...and then slaps back much harder, sending Graeme tumbling into a nearby pile of boxes.
* GiantFootOfStomping / DeadlineNews: In ''Kitten Kong'' a newsreader is squashed by Kitten Kong's huge paw.

** And in ''Saturday Night Grease'' he dons a pair of underpants that have a large carrot on them.
* HilariousOuttakes: Included on the first DVD, showing several takes of the "breaking the record" scene from ''The End''. Notable among them is the one where Bill takes the record off and smashes it against the desk, and...it doesn't break. He smashes it against the desk ''four more times'', until Tim takes it from him...and attempts to smash it himself.

* HospitalHottie: Spoofed in ''Hospital For Hire'', where the nurse turns out to be a bearded man. Then they're informed she's not a man.

* IKnowKungFaux: Ecky-Thump, the ancient Lancastrian art of self-defence. It involved the use of black puddings as weapons.

* [[IneptTalentShowContestant IneptTalentShowContestants]]: In ''Hype Pressure'' Graeme and Bill form a folk duo called 'the Twofolk'. They appear on Tim's cruel talent show 'New Faeces' and perform a hideous song called "The World Is Full Of Women and Men". Despite being booed by the audience, they are a hit with the supposedly unscrupulous panelists, who admire the song's naivety and purity. Tim's theatre of cruelty series is cancelled as a result.
* InstitutionalApparel: The arrow variation uniform can be seen in the episode ''Goodies in the Nick''.*

* LeFilmArtistique: Parodied in "The Movies". The film of a nun stripping to a frenzied cello accompaniment, but revealing a whiteface mime, is especially bizarre.

-->'''Tim:''' ...Ruddy 'ell!

** Regulars of note were Corbet Woodall and Michael Barratt (who hosted ''Nationwide'').

* NoMoreForMe: In ''Frankenfido'' a man walking out of an optometrist takes off his new glasses after seeing the giant mutant pup...and promptly walks into a lamppost.

* NoPronunciationGuide: ''Bunfight at the OK Tea Room'' has an OverlyLongGag about the pronunciation of the word "scone". The joke is that both the long-O and short-O pronunciations are correct, and it's slightly region-dependent which one is favoured.

-->'''Bill:''' Oh, ''tomato'' soup...

** Done earlier in ''Invasion Of The Moon Creatures'', when Bill, dressed as a rabbit (ItMakesSenseInContext, promise) runs next to a hole and jumps down the rabbit hole to get rid of Graeme, who is chasing him. Graeme attempts to jump in also, but hits the ground. Confused, he touches the hole, and manages to ''pick it up'' -- it's just a piece of round, black paper. Frustrated, he throws the hole away as he stomps off-screen. When the hole lands, Bill crawls out of it again.

* PinPullingTeeth (In reference to this trope, while on a desert island Graeme bites the top off a pineapple which then explodes [[RuleOfFunny for no apparent reason]].

* PoliticalStereotype: Not a major part of their characters, but the three Goodies each had elements of being stereotypical members of the three main political parties in the UK at the time: Bill for Labour, Tim for the Conservatives and Graeme for the Liberals.

* PressurePoint: Spoofed in ''Kung Fu Capers'': Reading from a book of martial arts instructions, Graham delivers a large number of light taps and pokes to various spots on Tim's body. After several seconds of nothing happening, Tim suddenly spasms and jerks back and forth before collapsing unconscious.

** Although then BBC controller Jane Root is on record as saying she would allow no more episodes to be made and would permit repeat screenings ''only over my dead body''. Something of a hate figure among Goodies afficionados, fans are patiently waiting for news of her funeral.
* ShootOutTheLock: In ''UF-Friend or UFO'' Bill is being chased by what he thinks is an alien, but Tim won't let him in the door, so he orders Graham's robot to open it. The robot promptly disintegrates the door, so Bill can't lock it after him.

** They had another ''Python'' reference at the end of the beanstalk episode; after rubbing the empty bean tin that started the havoc, a genie (played by JohnCleese) rises out and proclaims it to be time for Something Completely Different, before realising that he's in a "[[TakeThat Kids' Program!"]] and disappearing.
** In ''Kitten Kong'' The Goodies Rush into an office Dressed as Mice, The Cleaning Lady [[WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry Leaps up onto a Nearby stool and Starts Shouting "Thomas"]]

* SpotTheImposter: In ''The Baddies'', where robot doubles of the lads were made by someone trying to give them a bad image. Tim eventually yells that they should try and unscrew the doubles' heads, to which the inventor of the doubles panicked, revealing them, The Goodies then begin to chase the duplicates. HilarityEnsues.
* StartMyOwn: The basis for several episodes, including "Radio Goodies" and "Hospital for Hire".

* TakeThat: Frequently to Rolf Harris. In "The Stolen Musicians", being locked into a cell with Rolf Harris is considered a FateWorseThanDeath. (Also, they took a few playful shots at ''MontyPython''.)

* ThisIsNoTimeToPanic: Usually Graeme will say calmly, "Who votes that we should panic now?" followed by everyone putting up their hands, then Bill and Graeme start running about shouting hysterically while Tim pretends he's a Teapot.

-->'''Graeme:''' Today...the post office...tomorrow...''the worrrld.''

* UnCanceled

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids: A source of great fustration for the team. The concentration of cartoon like visual humour led the BBC to labelling The Goodies as a children's show, and then getting uptight about any 'unsuitable' material.

** In ''Kitten Kong'' The Goodies Rush into an office Dressed as Mice, The Cleaning Lady [[TomAndJerry Leaps up onto a Nearby stool and Starts Shouting "Thomas"]]

* GibberishOfLove: The first time ''Series/TheGoodies'' meet their dancing partners in the episode "Come Dancing", this ensues. Simultaneously. [[BeyondTheImpossible To both trios.]] How else to explain this exchange?

-->'''Bill:''' Since when indeed, yes...what did we get last time ''you'' cooked supper, eh? ''[Tim turns his back as well] A bowl of corn flakes!'' Yes, and [[BeyondTheImpossible they were burnt]]...

* PaintedTunnelRealTrain: Taken to a truly ''[[BeyondTheImpossible manic]]'' extent in ''The Movies'': Characters jump in and out of the cinema screen, then in and out of the cinema screen which is on ''another cinema screen'', then running off screen, appearing in the cinema screen inside the cinema screen, then jumping through all the cinema screens. The amazing thing is that they avoid SpecialEffectFailure despite the episode being from 1975, and ''live action television''.

* TastyRevenge: In "Punky Business", Graeme dumps Tim's spaghetti dinner over Tim's head as part of the punk experience at his restaurant "Trattoria Punk".

* EnemyMine: "Daylight Robbery on the Orient Express"

* EleventyZillion: In the episode "Culture for the Masses" Tim buys a painting at an auction for "one million billion quintillion zillion pounds and two and a half new pence", which it goes without saying that he does not have. They leave thirteen pence as a deposit. By Contrived Coincidence, the National Gallery have all their paintings insured for exactly one million billion quintillion zillion pounds. HilarityEnsues.

* EdibleAmmunition (The ketchup squeeze bottles in "Bunfight at the OK Tearooms")

* HoYay: Frequent. In one episode, Tim and Graeme replace Bill with a robot, which they treat like a son, and end up acting like a dysfunctional married couple.
** And lampshaded, notably in ''The End'', where they're concreted into their office.
-->'''Tim:''' We shall make a new world...a better world for our children.
-->'''Bill:''' What d'you mean, children--we're not going to have any children, are we? I mean, think about it, y'know...face it, from now on we three are doomed to be [[HaveAGayOldTime bachelors gay!]] ''(puts his hand on Tim's shoulder while Graeme starts stroking his hair)'' That's, uh...that's an idea, innit?
-->'''Tim:''' ''(thoughtful pause)'' ...No! Get off!

* [=~Don't Touch It, You Idiot!~=]: This is played with in the very first episode, as the Crown Jewels have a sign placed by them reading "Please Do Not Steal". It doesn't do much good.
* [=~Don't Try This At Home~=]: "We would like to point out that Ecky Thump is the ancient Lancastrian art of self defence. When practised by the untrained, it could be dangerous."

* [=~Everything's Better With Monkeys~=]: ''The Funky Gibbon'' — the greatest novelty hit of The Goodies.

* {{Zany Scheme}} (What the boys do when there's no helpless to help!)

* OverlyLongName: When The Goodies travel to Wales via train, the name of the station is seen outside the window continuing for the entire journey to their destination.

A groundbreaking 1970 British comedy series, not nearly as well-known outside of the UK as its contemporary, ''MontyPythonsFlyingCircus.'' (Some view it as ''TheMonkees'' to the Pythons' Beatles -- while others view it as the Beatles to the Pythons' ''[[TheRollingStones Rolling Stones]]''.) Born from the same generation of comic talents that infused British TV in the 1960s and 1970s with such innovative work, ''TheGoodies'' was far more plot-oriented than ''Python'' (it was nominally a SitCom when it premiered), but at the same time it was also far more anarchic and surreal.

* DieLaughing: ''Kung Fu Kapers'' caused Alex Mitchell to laugh non-stop for nearly a half-hour. The strain on his body was too much and he suffered a fatal heart attack. His widow sent a letter to TheGoodies thanking them for making her husband's last moments so happy.

* FoodSlap: In ''TheGoodies and the Bean Stalk'', Bill has gone to sell the beloved trandem -- however, it's rated as worthless by the bike buyers, who jokingly buy it for a tin of beans. When he comes back, Tim and Graeme inspect it, surprisingly calm, before pouring all the beans over Bill's head.

* FootballHooligans: ''TheGoodies'' had an episode about soccer hooliganism, in which ''ballet'' eventually replaced soccer as the national pastime but was then ruined by - yep - ''ballet hooligans''.

* GibberishOfLove: The first time ''TheGoodies'' meet their dancing partners in the episode "Come Dancing", this ensues. Simultaneously. [[BeyondTheImpossible To both trios.]] How else to explain this exchange?

* MeritBadgesForEverything: The ''Scoutrageous!'' episode of TheGoodies features the World Domination badge (up to that point only ever awarded to Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar and David Frost. But Frost stole his.).

** Which, in turn, would make ''TheGoodies'' itself a SpiritualSuccessor to ''I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again''.

* theGirlWhoFitsThisSlipper: In "Punky Business", Graeme turns Tim into a punk by cutting his leg off. After reattaching it, he warns Tim that the catch won't last much past midnight. Tim goes to the Trensetter's Ball, where he loses his leg at midnight. Caroline Kook vows to marry the man whom the leg fits. Cue punks cutting off their own legs.

* SpiritualSuccessor (''ImSorryIHaventAClue'', to some extent, especially the earlier episodes where Bill was a regular along with Tim and Graeme)

** It's his Lady Constance (from ImSorryIllReadThatAgain) voice. He's had plenty of practice.

** Both Bills were keen ornithologists, though, because that was something he was known for. Tim would later say that the characters were exaggerations of how the public percieved them; so Bill's passionate outspokenness became heroic sociopathy, Graeme's medical degree made him a MadScientist, and Tim's posh accent made him an UpperClassTwit.

* AsHimself: A number of figures from British broadcasting and popular culture appeared as themselves on the programme, such as DJ Tony Blackburn (a frequent target for {{Take That}}s), ''Sky at Night'' presenter Patrick Moore, rugby league commentator Eddie Waring, and newsreaders and commentators such as Michael Aspel, Michael Barratt, David Dimbleby, and Corbet Woodall.

* TheCameo: Plenty of celebrities spoofed themselves, and the series virtually invented the NewscasterCameo. Averted with Prince Charles who considered it but had to decline, and Rolf Harris who was never asked to appear in the episode spoofing him, much to his disappointment.

* ClownCarBase: In ''Skatty Safari'' the Rolf Harris plague has a take-off of the Pied Piper of Hamilton, which includes the Rolf Harris "attacking the babies in their cradles". Later when the Goodies draw them out of the city by playing "Waltzing Matilda" on didgeridoos, an endless stream of Rolfs are seen clambering out of the one baby carriage.

** They even devoted a whole episode to mocking Rolf Harris - in "Scatty Safari", they capture Rolf Harris, who becomes the star attraction at the Goodies' celebrity safari park. Unfortunately, their captive breeding program works a little too well, and Great Britain is soon overrun by a plague of Rolf Harrises.[[hottip:*: Rolf Harris is played by a lookalike in this episode, though Harris has said since that not only were many people convinced that he really did appear in the episode, but he would have been happy to appear as himself if asked (Bill Oddie, who disliked Harris (and Blackburn) most of all of the three Goodies, assumed Harris would refuse if approached to play himself and so never thought to ask).]]

* AsHimself: A number of figures from British broadcasting and popular culture appeared as themselves on the programme, such as DJ Tony Blackburn (a frequent target for {{TakeThat}}s), ''Sky at Night'' presenter Patrick Moore, rugby league commentator Eddie Waring, and newsreaders and commentators such as Michael Aspel, Michael Barratt, David Dimbleby, and Corbet Woodall.

* TakeThat: Frequently to Rolf Harris or David Frost. In "The Stolen Musicians", being locked into a cell with Rolf Harris is considered a FateWorseThanDeath. (Also, they took a few playful shots at ''MontyPython''.)

** They even devoted a whole episode to mocking Rolf Harris - in ''Scatty Safari'', they capture Rolf Harris, who becomes the star attraction at the Goodies' celebrity safari park. Unfortunately, their captive breeding program works a little too well, and Great Britain is soon overrun by a plague of Rolf Harrises. The episode also includes a swipe at Tony Blackburn, the safari park's former main attraction. Tony doesn't do well in captivity, and after Tim can't bring himself to put the poor fellow out of his misery ("I couldn't do it! Those big brown eyes looking up at me. I swear he could understand every word I said!"), they decide to release him into the wild, and he makes his glorious run for freedom... at which point he is promptly shot dead by a hunter.
** Other favourite targets: singers Max Bygraves and Des O'Connor, journalist/comedian David Frost (fondly), "Clean Up TV" and "Festival of Light" campaigner Mary Whitehouse, actress and political activist Vanessa Redgrave, and television presenter Nicholas Parsons.

---> '''Graeme:''' ''Now lift up your index and middle finger and make a V.''
---> ''Tim makes the rude V sign.''
---> '''Graeme:''' ''No, not like that.''
---> ''Tim flips his hand around to a less rude gesture''
---> '''Graeme:''' ''Yes, like that.''