Humour Books > Spike Milligan Humour Books

Advantages: Funny and real.
Disadvantages: Ends before the shooting starts.

...have been four sequels to Adolf Hitler - My Part In His Downfall:- Rommel: Gunner Who? Monty: His Part In My Victory Mussolini: His Part In My Downfall Where Have All The Bullets Gone? After the war, Spike teamed up with Harry Secombe*, Peter Sellers and Michael Bentine to create that ground-breaking BBC radio comedy The Goon Show (1951-60). A manic depressive, the pressure of writing the weekly show led to a nervous breakdown. Later, his 1960's ... Read review

Advantages: Great jokes by one of the greatest comedians of his time
Disadvantages: Can be heavy going and confusing if you don't know the Bible

...refused to swear allegiance to the queen. This upset a number of people but it just made my respect for the man greater. It was good to see him stand up for his beliefs rather than crawl and brown-nose just to get an OBE. The book is, to use its full title, The Bible: The Old Testament According to Spike Milligan. I am not going to go for an outright spoiler on this, as how do you spoil a book without copying it word for word? I have decided to ...
...haven’t got a clue what the real Bible’s version of things is. I read this book purely for the comedy aspect and if you know something of the bible, you may find a lot more jokes than I did as later, when it starts getting heavy, the jokes go straight over my head. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Chapter One: The Creation According to the Trade Unions. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX This first Chapter is only a page ... Read review

Advantages: Written by a comedic genius with some very funny lines
Disadvantages: Some not so funny lines

...to the original story of Robin and his Merry Men there are some vital differences. Maid Marion turns out to be a pole vaulter, Little John is now known as Big Dick, and somehow Groucho Marx ends up in Sherwood Forest as well. There are some extremely funny lines demonstrating that surreal humour that Spike developed in the Goons back in the fifties. For instance there is an emphasis on jam sandwiches and porridge as well as bows and arrows. However, ... Read review

Advantages: A bonus for Milligan fans
Disadvantages: There won't be any more

...18', one of Milligan's meticulously-arranged box files in which he kept every scrap of paperwork, both personal and professional. Included in this posthumously-released anthology are various pages from Spike's appointment diaries, several unfinished (as far as Milligan was concerned) scripts, poems and stories, together with a selection of his drawings, photographs, and letters to friends and figures of authority, among them Princes Charles and ...
...Milligan didn't consider any of Box 18's contents to be ready for public airing, how much of it is up to his usual standard and actually worth publishing. It's a valid question to ask, and indeed, it isn't difficult to see why some of the sketches, for example, never made it beyond his filing system; for the most part, though, the book is vintage Milligan, and on balance, I believe Farnes was right to let his fans have one last laugh. There are some ... Read review

Advantages: Good read very funny
Disadvantages: none

...enjoy it as it's about the history of comedy, featuring some of the best one liners ever from all the great comics. It's really interesting too, I first just jumped through and read all the funny jokes that are usually in bold on a separate page but then reading it properly it goes through why we use comedy, when the first joke was ever told, all things ,ike that and it's interesting to read why people are funny etc. I got the hardback version on ... Read review