BS: Fortunately...unfortunately... sketch

Subject: BS: Fortunately...unfortunately... sketch
From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 13 Jan 07 - 05:15 PM

Really sorry to trouble you lads, but it's driving me crazy and I know some of the UKers here will know.

*Who* did the famous old comedy sketch in which someone has a long extended accident with a bucket of bricks and a pulley? It's a letter, and it's in the form of 'fortunately....' followed by a wistful 'unfortunately...' as the disaster compounds itself.

(I'm hoping to find it on YouTube, home of many good things including the dance from Way Out West.)

Subject: RE: BS: Fortunately...unfortunately... sketch
From: Micca
Date: 13 Jan 07 - 05:21 PM

Gerard Hoffnung " at the Oxford Union" on an old 10" vinyl recording from 1950s

Subject: RE: BS: Fortunately...unfortunately... sketch
From: Micca
Date: 13 Jan 07 - 05:25 PM

For details of CD here

Subject: RE: BS: Fortunately...unfortunately... sketch
From: Skivee
Date: 13 Jan 07 - 05:27 PM

The song is called variously, "Why Paddy not at work today", "The Sick Note", Paddy and the Bricks".
I've also seen it used as a joke example of an insurance claim.
Over a long number of years there has been much speculation concerning this song. I wrote this song under it's original title Paddy and the Barrell in 1969, and first performed it in The Dyers Arms in Coventry at this time, and in 1972 Sean Cannon, later to become a member of the Dubliners began to perform it in the folk clubs under the title The Sick Note. The song was based on Gerard Hoffnung's wonderful address to the Oxford Union, but the story in a more simple form dates back to the English music halls in the 1920's and appeared in the Readers Digest in 1937. I personally gave the words of this song to Noel Murphy in a night club in Coventry in the early seventies and his only contribution to this song was to change the title to Murphy and the Bricks, and when this song was recorded Noel Murphy was obliged to remove his name from the writers credits, I still have a letter from Misty River Music to this effect. The song under more than 20 alternative titles has since been recorded more than 100 times worldwide, and in every version the words are identical. This song under all alternative titles has always been the exclusive copywright of myself, Pat Cooksey, and is registered with The Performing Rights Society in London. This includes Dear Boss by The Clancy brothers, The Bricklayers Song by The Corries and Ray Stevens, The Sick Note by The Dubliners, etc,etc, and also Murphy and the Bricks. No other artist had any input into this song nor is any claim for arrangement valid. Pat Cooksey, Nuremberg, Germany.
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The lyrics in the Digital Tradition:

http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=560#1533

Subject: RE: BS: Fortunately...unfortunately... sketch
From: Skivee
Date: 13 Jan 07 - 05:29 PM

I mean to note that the basic situation is a very old joke, dating back to the turn of the 19th century.

Subject: RE: BS: Fortunately...unfortunately... sketch
From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 13 Jan 07 - 05:31 PM

HOFFNUNG!!! Of course! Bless you, bless you, bless you thrice!

It's not on YouTube, but the famous Oxford Union address is downloadable here.

Subject: RE: BS: Fortunately...unfortunately... sketch
From: GUEST,what, what, what
Date: 13 Jan 07 - 05:35 PM

The Bricklayer's Lament

"Unfortunately the text of the "Bricklayer's Lament" as told by Gerard Hoffnung at the Oxford Union, December 4th, 1958 has been removed from on-line, owing to it being copyrighted material. Recordings of Gerard Hoffnung's address to the Oxford Union are available commercially: for more details visit the Official Gerard Hoffnung Site."

Here

Subject: RE: BS: Fortunately...unfortunately... sketch
From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 13 Jan 07 - 05:44 PM

Odd. I'm just listening to it now...

Subject: RE: BS: Fortunately...unfortunately... sketch
From: GUEST,what, what, what
Date: 13 Jan 07 - 05:49 PM

Yup !!

Presumably that quote can be interpreted as
"you can LISTEN to it but not READ it"
lol

Subject: RE: BS: Fortunately...unfortunately... sketch
From: JennyO
Date: 14 Jan 07 - 08:51 AM

Well it hasn't been completely removed from online everywhere, because I found it quite easily on the Monologues site here:

The Bricklayer's Story.

I heard the Gerard Hoffnung version on a tape, I think, when I was in my teens, and transcribed the words then. I listened to it so many times I can still 'hear' him in my mind as I read the words, with all the pauses for effect and repeated words. I've probably still got the words as I originally wrote them somewhere. Haven't got the tape though. What a shame :-(

Subject: RE: BS: Fortunately...unfortunately... sketch
From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 14 Jan 07 - 05:15 PM

I was amazed to find that he was only 34 when he died. What a life!

Subject: RE: BS: Fortunately...unfortunately... sketch
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 15 Jan 07 - 02:02 AM

This 'saga' was investigated by The Myth Busters TV Show.

Dunno that I don't get the impression of a bunch of very poorly educated (scientifically!) blunderers, though, but perhaps that is exactly what the producers were looking for - the lowest common denominator...

Subject: RE: BS: Fortunately...unfortunately... sketch
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 15 Jan 07 - 03:06 AM

Can find the words and listen to the full song @
Cantaria
click on Alphabetical index and then 'The sick note'
Best wishes, Mike.