Reasons to be Cheerful.

Tonights Long Live Comedy is themed 'the blues'. When I had that idea, I'd vaguely imagined the competition would be blues lyrics, e.g. Filling in the blamks;

I woke up this morning,
and my ......................was.....................
Yeah, I woke up this morning,
and my ......................was.....................
Now......................................................

But actually, this is one of those things that sound like a good idea but it's actually really hard to think up some good examples. It probably wouldn't have worked. So I'm quite relieved that in my absence, Al flipped the theme on its head and set the alternative competition- think of reasons to be cheerful. This may have been inspired by Ian Dury's song...

Reasons to be cheerful 1 2 3

Summer, Buddy Holly, the working folly
Good golly Miss Molly and boats
Hammersmith Palais, the Bolshoi Ballet
Jump back in the alley and nanny goats

18-wheeler Scammels, Domenecker camels
All other mammals plus equal votes
Seeing Piccadilly, Fanny Smith and Willy
Being rather silly, and porridge oats

A bit of grin and bear it, a bit of come and share it
You're welcome, we can spare it - yellow socks
Too short to be haughty, too nutty to be naughty
Going on 40 - no electric shocks

The juice of the carrot, the smile of the parrot
A little drop of claret - anything that rocks
Elvis and Scotty, days when I ain't spotty,
Sitting on the potty - curing smallpox

Health service glasses
Gigolos and brasses
round or skinny bottoms

Take your mum to paris
lighting up the chalice
wee willy harris

Bantu Stephen Biko, listening to Rico
Harpo, Groucho, Chico

Cheddar cheese and pickle, the Vincent motorsickle
Slap and tickle
Woody Allen, Dali, Dimitri and Pasquale
balabalabala and Volare

Something nice to study, phoning up a buddy
Being in my nuddy
Saying hokey-dokey, singalonga Smokey
Coming out of chokey

John Coltrane's soprano, Adi Celentano
Bonar Colleano

Looking at that, there's very little I don't agree with. I've never met 'wee willy harris' but I'm willing to take Ian's word for it that he's a bundle of fun. I think the only one I'd really take issue with is 'the juice of a carrot'. There's sometimes a debate about which are fruits and which are vegetables, an easy way to end this debate- get the juice out of something, if it's minging, it's a vegetable.

I certainly agree with the 'Harpo, Groucho, Chico' bit. The Marx Brothers are without doubt a reason to be cheerful. And I think Ian was right to leave off Zeppo. Zeppo was not dropped to make the line scan. Look at him. The daftest name, but it looks like they only let him back in the group after he failed his accountancy exams.