Just A Minute

 
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the secret pleasure of Just A Minute

Messages in this topic: 1
Dean BedfordFeb 3, 2007
 

 
I just posted this on the blog, but there might be interest here...



I was driving along and was thinking about a bit of JAM from 1975. It's
the show where Aimi Macdonald has the subject of "roulette" and starts
counting "one, two, three, four..." There's a wrangle over whether
saying "fourteen, fifteen" is a repetition of teen and then one about
repeating 20 (as in 21, 22...). And Peter Jones says "I think we should
move on, I'm very anxious to get into the 30s!"

Now I was just thinking about this, it wasn't even playing on the tape
player. And suddenly I'm crying with laughter. And I'm stopped at the
traffic lights with the windows down and there's people looking at me
funny. I'm alone with no tape playing and laughing fit to die. I must
have heard that show about 50 times - it was one of the first I had -
and yet here I am laughing hard at just the thought of it.

And the thing is, if I had had to explain to someone, other than another
JAM fan, why I was laughing, I'd have a hard time. That's the thing
about JAM, it's not as in-jokey as I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue - but you
do have to understand the personalities involved and the "rules" and
format to like it.

There are so many bits of the show that you would only get if you're a
fan. Perhaps my favourite one-liner is when Elaine Stritch said of
Kenneth "he makes one word into a three-act play". Kenneth's diction is
such a feature of his performances and any JAM fan relates immediately.

And someone on the Yahoo group mentioned the "herbaceous border" thing
and said, rightly, everyone would know what she meant. That relates to
an incident a couple of years ago where Paul and Nicholas debated
whether Clement's comment, "we now have herbaceous borders that would
outwit", was deviation or not. This is now a classic moment on JAM. Yet
it only works because you know how the show works. A non-JAM fan would
think you were nuts for even listening to someone debating whether you
could be outwitted by a herbaceous border, let alone laughing at it.

Obviously there's a zillion examples - maybe you guys have better ones.

But hey, who can I share my love of this silly show with, but with you?

 
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