h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

My favourite Urban myth, and one which continues to be perpetuated on this Web Site (try browsing 'Captain Pugwash' for several examples)

The main features of the Myth are...
- one of the characters was 'Roger the Cabin Boy' (alternative version - Roger Screws the Cabin Boy)
- another was 'Seaman Stains'
- another was 'Master Bates'
- 'Pugwash' is a slang Australian term for an unnatural sexual act

None of these statements are true.

Ragnar Hairybreeks

All of the above is correct except in one Pugwash episode Master Mate is referred to as Master Bate (once only)

All of the above is correct except in one Pugwash episode Master Mate is referred to as Master Bate (once only)
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Maybe true, but one wonders if the names were deliberately similar due to coincidence or deprave minds at work in writing childrens TV. I suspect the latter. In evidence of deprave and junked up mind at work in childrens TVI submit;

Every single Magic Roundabout Episode
Every single Clangers episode.
The "Blue" untransmited (well not before 9:00) episode of Rainbow.
Keith Chegwin
Richard Bacon
Noel Edmonds jumpers from the 70s
Ant and Dec

need I go on?

Chris

I bought a book on the history of Children's TV which had a huge black sticker obscuring one page, with a grovelling apology to Oliver Postgate for repeating this myth without checking it!

The "Blue" episode of Rainbow??? Dare I ask?!?

It shows up fairly regularly on late-night TV, along with the rehearsals for the Royal Variety performance where Zippy and George told Jim Davidson to F**K OFF! because he was disturbing their rehearsal!

My favourite Rainbow joke...

Bungle: Oh, Zippy, Jeffrey's gone out!
Zippy: Well, throw some more petrol on him, Bungle!

(works best with the voices!)

That wasn't the Rainbow episode I had in mind. In the one I have seen they sing a jolly little song which would make Julian Clary proud with it's single entendres about, well to be blunt, wanking. I'm sure there is copies out there somewhere.

Chris

Yup, the one where the female singer says she heard the other members of the team "banging their instruments" all night

That and much more smut. My case rests. Childrens TV is deviant.

On that matter where do old TV glove puppets go when they get canceled? I have some sort of sick mental image of Gordon the gopher working nights behind King Cross dispensing "special" services.

Chris

The Pugwash myth also includes Jack the Cabin boy, who was often late, prompting a cry of 'Ee Jack, y're late'.

They find new careers...
http://www.kama-sooty.co.uk/

I have a friend, and this is true, who used to work at Sesame St as a puppet maker.

Apparently when a character gets cancelled, they also get ripped apart, refurbished, and sent back out as someone else.

A bit like Tony Blair's cabinet of clones. Don't you think?

I'm disappointed to learn that my favourite Pugwash story is not true, though.

By way of noting that occasionally, life imitates Urban Legend, I feel it is worth pointing out that my uncle Alan, who spent a considerable portion of his career as a ship's master, rejoices in the surname Bates.

Just to clarify the old Pugwash thing. It isn't (as far as I know) an Aussie term, but Olde English slang for...erm...well that 'gift' that gentlemen generally leave with ladies after an evening's entertainment, if you catch my drift.
Used with particular reference, I believe, to ladies of the night i.e. - she's full of pugwash!

Also - The chaps who did the voices for Bill and Ben have freely admited in interview that they swore like troupers and disguised it in Blobablobaspeak. If parents could have known what B&B were really saying, they'd never have let us watch!