NOT AMUSED!

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 57, 8 March 1935, Page 6

NOT AMUSED!

8.8.C. AND HUMOUR

(By NELLE M. SCANLAN.)

LONDON, January 29.

If you "can't fool all the people all the time," you certainly can't please all the people all the time. The 8.8.C. has tried hard and it knows. Extremists on both sides, it would seem, sit beside their wireless set, night after night, pen and paper at hand, not relaxing and hoping to enjoy part if not all of the programmes, and turning off when they find the item not to their taste, but eager to pounce on some word Or subject that offends or annoys them. The late post is full of their burning words, which are written while their anger is molten, and even the frost and snow outside, which they face in order to reach the letter box and ensure that Sir John Keith will have their protest not later than breakfast next morning, cannot cool them.

This week wo had a good bag. The two back-chat comedians, Claphain and Dwyer, wore the culprits. In the rapid interchange a wrong word slipped out, and so devastating was the effect that the companion was almost stunned to silence. Thousands of telephones were ringing up the 8.8.C. simultaneously, gallon* of ink were being spread in protest. Meanwhile at each subsequent announcement of the news, an official apology was inserted, and those who had not heard the offending word were puzzled. But the apology was broadcast each time.

The Sunday night surprise item was the next to supply a theme for controversy. Mr. Bernard Shaw ami Madeleine Carroll the actress discussed sox appeal. To some this subject would have been an offence on any night of the week, but being Sunday doubled the crime. The B.Ji.C. authorities have replied to the Sunday Observance Committee, which led the complaint, stating that it was part of an experiment to have discussions on Sunday night as a surprise item. They are standing firmly upon this decision to make experiments and strike a balance between extremists'

The third of the week's bag was what the author, Mr. Irwin-Dash, described as a rollicking comedy song, with no vulgar implication. This song, however, raised another storm of protest, and the 8.8.C. mail bag was bursting with protests, the morning after its first inclusion by a dance band. "The Pig got up, and slowly walked away." That is the name of the song, and here is the first verse: One evening in October, when I was far from sober, To keep my feet from wandering: I tried. My poor legs were all α-flutter, so I lay down in the gutter. And a pig came up and lay down by my side. We sans, "Never mind the weather just as long , as we're together," Till a lady passing by was heard to say: "All his self-respect he loses when such company he chooses," And the pig got up and slowly walked away. The banning of this song from the 8.8.C. has given it the usual advertisement that falls like a benediction upon outcasts in literature and art; they prosper exceedingly in consequence. What win happen when we get television will be another matter. Will the ballet be allowed to wear ballet dress? Will chorus girls be permitted to kick higher than their knees? Who will act as censor of dresses? At present "the tired business man's" sort of show is a girl-and-music plus dancing affair, and only those who enjoy thie frothy fun, which includes Cochran's revues, pay to go. But if some of the scenes were shown into the parlours of the protesters, the outcry would deafen London.