Those of you of a certain age will recognise Max (Shudders) Bygraves’ catch-phrase in today’s title. Catch-phrases seem to be a fairly new thing, but though there are certainly more of them than ever and while they are probably more necessary in order to differentiate an ever-increasing army of comedians (just take a peek at the Comedy Festival brochure) catch-phrases are not new. ‘Can you hear me mother?’, ‘Oops, where’s me washboard?’ and ‘You lucky people’ are all wartime examples * and there are probably others dating from the era of music hall. Perhaps even poor Yorick had his own catch-phrase… Mine, I suppose, is ‘Kirk out.’ As a performer I don’t yet have a catch-phrase, but perhaps I should. Last night ol’ Max’s would have suited perfectly, as I went to ‘Telling Tales’ by the Leicester Guild of Storytellers, where I adapted one of my published stories for oral delivery. It was a very enjoyable evening; there was a mix of traditional stories from China, India and Nigeria; a true-life story from a fireman on the Flying Scotsman of ‘The Day the Fire Went Out’ and a charming tale of an eager snowdrop. My ‘Mem Mat’ story about a memory mattress which absorbs people’s actual memories, went down very well and so I shall probably go again in April.
I’m updating this post from the library now, where Mac (I’ve decided to call OH ‘Mac’) has suggested that because I’ve forgotten my pen drive I should buy a new one; and, when I objected that a new one could hardly be expected to have all my stories and poems on it, he said that in a freak accident, it could happen. ‘That’d be an improbability pen-drive!’ I quipped.
Kirk out
* actually one of those is a spoof
Sarada Gray 
Just to show my age, the washboard one’s the spoof. I’ve played one in my time. I seem to remember having thimbles on my fingers but that might not be the case. I do remember “I don’t mind if I do”.
Spock out
Quite correct. I don’t know about the thimbles, though. Who was it said ‘I don’t mind if I do’?
Colonel Chinstrap in Itma taking every opportunity to treat a comment as the offer of a drink. Have just Googled Itma and lo and behold there is a list of the catch phrases at the bottom as well as a detailed writeup.
they dont like it up em………….which apperently came from an actual soldier said it a lot……………..stupid boy……………lovely boy………..(two army based tv series of comedy…coincidence)………shut that door…………..you really should get your own.