Wednesday, 16 March 2011

Recycled humour


THE UK Census, now in progress, takes place every ten years. In 1971 it was run by an Old Blue, Michael Reed (LaA 22-30), and in Punch magazine the humorist and jazzman Miles Kington composed a spoof census form, one section of which ran (more or less) as follows:
THE MAN BEHIND THE CENSUS

(1) Who is Michael Reed?

(2) Wouldn't he be saving us all a great deal of trouble if he asked us now what we're going to be doing in ten years' time?

(3) On the other hand, wouldn't that put him out of a job in ten years' time?

(4) So he's no fool, is he?

(5) If a man came up to you at a party and said "So your mother was born in Tashkent, was she? That's fascinating," would you assume he was Michael Reed?
This charming recollection of Miles Kington is by Noel de Jongh (ThA 40-49).

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