BS: Benny Hill poetry

Subject: BS: Benny Hill poetry
From: freightdawg
Date: 30 Oct 03 - 10:08 PM

Growing up I loved the Benny Hill show. He almost always had a spot where he quoted (destroyed maybe) a poem. One that stuck with me the most started out,

"Mary had a little lamb,
whose foot was black as soot,
and everywhere that little lamb went,
his sooty foot he put."

Does anyone know the ending to this Benny Hill version? How about any other of his poems? Before anyone asks, I've searched the tradition, but most hits were just Benny Hill's name.

I would love to have some of Hill's poems, or anything from Monty Python that would work well in between songs while you are letting your fingers recover.

Freightdawg

Subject: RE: BS: Benny Hill poetry
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 30 Oct 03 - 11:46 PM

I have a hunch your "quote" was the entire poem. And I don't think Benny Hill wrote that one; I think it's a bit of folklore he collected.

Nevertheless he was a brilliant writer of comical verse, a master of the double-entendre, the extended metaphor, and (relatively) sophisticated puns (if you're willing to admit there is such a thing).

Here's a website called The Benny Hill Songbook. Maybe it has something you can use.

Monty Python stuff, by contrast, is mostly dialogue, not monologue, so it would require a lot of rehearsing to get the timing right.

Subject: RE: BS: Benny Hill poetry
From: Bill D
Date: 31 Oct 03 - 12:37 AM

That line is from a Civil War song

see this thread

Subject: RE: BS: Benny Hill poetry
From: alanabit
Date: 31 Oct 03 - 05:19 AM

Paul Downes used to do a recitation of "Old Fiddler". I had a version of it on the Downes and Beer live album in the seventies. It was just perfect for Paul's Devon accent.