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Fish Licenses and the Ministry of Housinge

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birdless:
Every few years, I have to dust off my Monty Python Final Rip-Off CDs and listen to them until I wear them out again. I figured this crowd could definitely appreciate that.

So, since we have a good number of Brit posters, can someone explain the the Ministry of Housinge reference in the "Fish License" skit? It seems like it should be funny because it references something, but, not being British, I'm not catching the meaning.

Humorous side note: There are quite a few references in Monty Python I tend to write off that way. For instance, in Travel Agency, I always thought Smoketoomuch (Idle) said “Keeble Bolly Jocksford” and assumed it was just nonsense or some British candy bar. Not until today when I saw a transcript did I realize he said “Keble Bollege, Oxford.”


Moderator:  Altered link

Tango Alpha Delta:
I'm going to guess the one in your example is probably a spoonerism of "Bible College, Oxford"... but I really don't know.

Over the years, I have found that a lot of British comedy references that I didn't get turned out to be either:

1) Placenames of places that are funny ONLY if you know where they are (and you know how drab and horrid they are)

or

2) Rhyming slang (which makes the language as unintelligible to other English-speakers as it is to, say, the Korean guy who used to cut my hair (I did NOT want a 'high & tight', dammit!))

If you ever get the chance to pore over a good Ordinance Map of the UK (the ones that put MapQuest to shame) or a good list of "every English placename", you'll be in for a good laugh due to all of the ridiculous names that crop up:  "Cackle Hill", "Dyke Village", "Bitchfield", and "Slough" always cracked me up when I drove past their signs.  (The latter because I could think of four different pronunciations, and I just knew whichever one I picked would be wrong... so I never asked to go there.)

Bill Bryson documented a few in his excellent books, especially Notes From a Small Island. 

(Oh, dear, sweet moderators!  Give us this day our daily tweak of the url, so that EP may receive its full bounty!)

I shall now slap myself with a fish for your amusement.

*squitch*


Moderator: Tweaked.  Hand me the fish, so I can give you a couple slaps too.

stePH:

--- Quote from: Tango Alpha Delta on April 13, 2008, 04:56:26 AM ---I'm going to guess the one in your example is probably a spoonerism of "Bible College, Oxford"... but I really don't know.
--- End quote ---

No, Mr. Smoketoomuch was incapable of pronouncing the letter "C", and made the "B" sound instead.  So "colour" was pronounced "bolour", for example (it goes back to when he was at Bainbridge University and was attacked by a bat.  "A cat?"  "No, a bat.")  So the travel agent asked if he was capable of pronouncing "K", and Mr. S. replied, "Oh yeah, koffee, kettle, Keble Bollege Oxford..."

Or so I recall, as it's been many years in the ago since I heard the sketch last.

Tango Alpha Delta:
Ah!  I need to rent those DVDs one of these days.

And, what do you know?  http://www.keble.ox.ac.uk/

birdless:
Thanks, TAD! Starting a thread which gets no responses is like raising a hand for a high-five and getting left hanging.

So no one actually gets the joke in the Fish License sketch where he states he got his cat license from the "Ministry of Housinge" cat detector van?

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