The humour of this sketch lies in the way different words sound the same (homophones). It was written by Ronnie Barker and performed by the Two Ronnies - Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett.
'Word play and homophones exhibit Barker's fascination with the English language and are cleverly used to powerful comic effect in this sketch. A shopkeeper, played by Ronnie Corbett, in a hardware shop becomes increasingly frustrated by a customer, played by Barker, because he continuously misunderstands what he is requesting.' (Wikipedia)
A further complication is that both men are Londoners, and it is a characteristic of some London dialects that people drop their aitches (the letter H). So hand becomes 'and, horse becomes 'orse, hose becomes 'ose etc.
Barker also pronounces thirteen as thir'een with a silent T, this is known as a glottal stop and is another feature of the way some Londoners speak.
The sketch starts with Barker asking for
'fork 'andles' (handles for garden forks) -
Google images - but Corbett thinks he says
four candles -
Google images - and it goes on from there.
Before you watch the video clip, make sure you know what these are, by looking them up in Google Images
Corbett uses the expression 'You're having me on' a couple of times. To have somebody on means 'to persuade someone that something is true when it is not, usually as a joke' (Cambridge Dictionaries Online). It is almost always used in a continuous tense.
First watch the video without the transcript, and see how much you understand. Then watch again with my (edited) transcript. Finally you can read my comments with more Google Image links.
My comments
- Plugs - At first Corbett thinks Barker is talking about the kind of bathroom plug we looked at before, but Barker says 13 amp, a size of 13 amp rubber plugs (to go in a socket). British plugs come in 13 amp and 3 amp, but sockets are illegal in bathrooms now in the UK, except for shavers.
- Incidentally, Corbett says they're called electric bathroom plugs 'in the trade' - this means in the bulding trade or profession.
- Saw tips - Corbett thought he said sore tips (finger tips?) and asks Barker if he wants ointment, but Barker wanted saw tips, tips for saws.
- Hoes / hose / panty hose - at least that's what Corbett thought. But Barker wanted letter O's for the sign on a gate 'Mon Repos' (French for my rest) - which the Barker character mispronounces as mon repose. Mon Repos is a popular (but stereotyped) house name in the UK.
- So then, when Barker asks for peas, Corbett naturally thinks he is asking for the letter P, to go on the gate.
- When we hear the word pump, we naturally think of a piece of equipment for pumping water, or pumping up your tyres, for example. But the word also means a kind of shoe, especially one for dancing.
- Washers - by this time Corbett is so exasperated, that he assumes that Barker means something different from the normal meaning of washers, but in fact Barker does mean washers in the normal meaning.
The ending
This is the only weak part, with its obscure reference to Bill Hooks. Don't worry if you missed something here, because so did I. I could think of nothing that could be confused with bill hooks, unless there's a person called Bill Hooks, but the other man is called Mr. Jones.
According to Wikipedia, the audience is intended to infer that the shopkeeper misread [bill hooks] as bollocks or pillocks (both mild slang for testicles - see below), but compared with the other jokes, that's a bit weak. Apparently Barker thought so too, and rewrote it, so that 'instead of another male shop assistant coming out and replacing Corbett, a large lady would come out and say "Right then young man, what kind of knockers are you after?"' (Wikipedia) - knockers can refer to door knockers, for example, but it's also one of the most common slang words (vulgar, used mainly by men) for a woman's breasts. Women (I think) prefer the word boobs.
Bollocks - this is a mild slang word for testicles, but like
balls, it has many other uses - see my post
here.
The copyright of this material obviously belongs to the creator(s). As it is being used here for educational purposes, and since the video dates back to 1976 and has been on YouTube since 2006, I hope this constitutes 'fair use'.
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