Gerard Hoffnung was, of course, primarily a (classical) musician, as well as an artist and humourist. So it is entirely possible that his famous Oxford Union speech recorded in the late '50s or early '60s, that we old UK farts fondly remember ["Half way down he met the barrel coming up..."], was based on an earlier song he came across. There has been an earlier thread on this that I haven't had time to check on.
RtS