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The Furcation Game
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Each game fork has its own rules. Additional forks may be possible if the particular game would allow it at the time. Reunifications must be legal in all affected forks.
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Hmm. My move appears to be packed with "extra closing / tags". I can't find a single one. And it all works fine on my Geocities page. This may take a while...
[1] The message clearly refers to the number of jammy badgers that need to be slapped in the faces of the Persians to evade the oncoming war King Syze: Alas, my daughter, fair as the moonlit sky
Radiant as Aurora's daylight breath,
You think I haven't tried to plead for clemency?
My servant, Standates, will soon return
With the words of the Delphic Oracle herself,
The vessel of Apollo in this world
The one who lured King Croesus to his doom
And chose the great Themistocles to be
Her reader, and the saviour of Athens.
  • Guard: My lord, Standates has returned.

    Enter Standates, and Massiva Syze, the king's mother

     

  • Standates: My lord, this sealed gold casket doth contain
    The words of the gracious Oracle. Nine months
    Have I carried this treasure from Parnassus
    To now conclude my journey with this step.
  • Massiva: But list awhile, my son, to my counsel.
    The actions of wise men outweigh the words
    Of but a single prophet. If the news
    Were not the kind you want, then would you kill
    Your only daughter for a scrap of reeds?
    I offer half my fortune, that you might
    Destroy the accursed box and keep your wits
    As well, your regal reputation true.
  • King Syze: I see. It's tempting. What, pray, should I do?
  • Audience: TAKE THE MONEY! OPEN THE BOX! TAKE THE MONEY! etc. etc.

    King Syze: You thus compel me to open the box. [Does so, with a bit of ceremony, courtiers staning with bated breath]
    The message of the Oracle reads thus:
    "When the seagulls follow the trawler it is because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea."
    A cryptic message certainly. It means
    That we should follow the advice of the Oracle
    In order that we might gain our deserts.

  • Meediam: But what is that advice, Father?
  • King Syze: That is the more cryptic second layer
  • Massiva: The sardines represent ourselves, it's plain
    And if we follow our instincts, then we all
    Will find ourselves devoured by the Fates.
  • Standates: Or yet, the trawler represents our land
    We must conserve our best supplies, like you, [Meediam]
    To ward off evil spirits.
  • King Syze: Verily,
    This clue could quite outsphinx the Theban Sphinx
    Let's hope and pray that someone can explain
    Its mystery before the day is out

    Enter (who else?) Graziela, Boleti, Azulejo, Lutenist

  • Euripides
    [2] Spank My Jammy Badger never caught on properly on the West Coast, as the badgers grabbed the table tennis bats and waked across the snow on them instead Watching a spider do its Fly impression.

    Doctor! I feel like a deck of cards!

    Spanklines
    [3] It was a jammy badger that originated the tradition of long pauses in Pinter's plays. It was only when Harold started slapping them that they could be made to shut up, you see King Syze: Piss off!
  • Countertenor: Warum fragen Sie, mich aufverpissen?
    Sie müssen jetzt hören, was wir wissen.
  • King Syze: Whining bastards. We don't need your kind round these parts.
  • Meediam: Yer. Taking our jobs, taking our livelihoods, you lot think you can come over ere 'n' take over, you think we won a bleedin' war for this? By!
  • Countertenor: Solche Rassismus haben wir nie gehört
    Seit wir in unserem eigenen Land sind.
    Doch, werden wir überprüfen, Fran's Schuh, Bert
  • Bert: [piccolo player] Fahren wir nun, wie einen ungeheu'ren Wind! [Exeunt Krauts]
  • Peugeot Good riddance.
  • Meediam: You said it.
  • King Syze: Bastards. [reads paper]
  • Meediam: I'm pregnant.
  • Peugeot Bloody hell.
  • King Syze: So what? [continues reading]
  • Meediam: Whaddaya mean so what? I've been sat ere waiting for a chance to tell you for hours and you go So What? How do you think I feel? Betrayed? Angry? Broken like a butterfly on a wheel? Hah! I'm all of those and more! You heartless pair, I've wasted the best years of my life on you and all you can do is... Oh my God! what's that under the cocktail cabinet?

    Enter Graziela and... oh, let's say... Barry

  • Graziela: Ah, there he is!

  • Pinter
    [4] So many people were buying jam in the summer of 1981 that there were virtually no badgers left to slap by the time they all left. Which is why shops could afford to give credit eventually We only give credit to idiots.

    Numquid tunc hoc dominum politicum

    Carpe Diem
    [5] "What The Jammy Badger Saw", an early draft of a better-known play (called "Loot") examined the psychology of the badger after sticking it through the hole in a doughnut and slapping it with jam. Oddly enough, the badger became rather docile and, indeed, attractive, as the experiment took its toll on the psychologists Enter Prince Minuscule, who is huge

  • Minuscule: Hi, Meediam! I need to sting Pa for a wodge of cash! I'll be meeting Lady Marmalade this afto and she's got expensive tastes. Have you seen him anywhere?
  • Meediam: Ladies & Gentlemen, The King! [All bow down]
  • Minuscule: Yes, that's the fellow.
  • Meediam: [while everyone's bowing] No, I mean you're the king!
  • Minuscule: Really? How inconvenient. Still, it might impress Lady Marmalade for a bit...
  • Graziela [straightens up, rubs hands with glee] Your Majesty! Let me take you away from all this! I plan to spirit you away to a secret lakeside hideaway
  • Minuscule: I say, steady on, old scream. We've hardly known each other five minutes
  • Boleti: Boss, this might not be the best time. There's something you should know about the King, he's...
  • Minuscule: Quite available, I assure you. [straightens tie, runs fingers through hair]
  • Graziela: Azulejo! Hand me the stunning aerosol! It's time to strike!
  • Azulejo: Um, sorry old girl, I've left it in the weasel cart.
  • Boleti: Bit of a stunning aerosol yourself aren't you?
  • Minuscule: Never mind, sweetie, let's take the time to get to know each other
  • Meediam: Not without me you're not [Exeunt all but Francoise]

    Enter Lutenist, now dressed as King

  • Lutenist: All bow down before me for I, the king is/am here!
  • Francoise Ooh lummy, a new one! Majesty, I ain't made up yer bed neither! When were you due to come?
  • Lutenist: [idly tweaks his instrument] Heh, well maybe you should take me to my room and I can fill you in up there? [eyebrows]
  • Francoise Ooh yes, and maybe you can show me your etchings?
  • Lutenist: After my itchings... [Exeunt]
  • Joe Orton
    [6] Had they studied the bereavement notice below, "Brocky, the beloved pet of retired jam-slapper Ivor Perversion, went the way of the trilobite last night," it might have been a quite different story. And Scorsese bought the rights immediately
  • Mark Lawson: When Byron saw the early morning sunlight strike the blue-grey sheen of the Aegean Sea, he was said to have murmured, "As to the cow'ring nomads of Samarkand came the warrior might of the Golden Horde." He could equally well have been talking about last week's month's effervescent eulogy of Tiddles the ginger Tom. Opening in a new translation by Neil Bartlett later this year, Mark Kermode, did this vibrate your whiskers?
  • Mark Kermode: No, when you get down to it, there are like a few key things in a certain sense wrong with it. I felt like I was instantly thrown into the thick of Tiddles's brief life without knowing properly what I should feel about the character or precisely where the artist was taking us. The plot, such as it was, became linear and really you know quite superficial When you look into it. I felt at points as if my sympathies were meant to lie with the owner, the bird, the Asian Flea, and there wasn't in my view satisfactory closure. Other than that, a perfect masterpiece of the genre, though when you compare it with the meisterwerks of Scorsese and Friedkin, well Tiddles clearly can't hold a candle.
  • Lawson: Ian McMillan?
  • Ian McMillan: Can I just say that no no no can I just make this point it's quite remarkable indeed one might in actual fact say in no small measure the author and I mean this most sincerely this author and I think I'm right in saying the single author of this piece, or rather pieces in fact, is likely and I'm talking about 50 years hence at this point, to, when it really comes down to it, without being entirely honest with us
  • Lawson: I'm sorry, we have to leave Mr McMillan's sentence there as it's time to move on to the new Soho outdoor urinal installation, Lisa Jardine, does this one float your boat?
  • Late Nostalgic Review of "Last week's nostalgic review of a late feline"
    [7] Poor John Lovelie is so named because of recently being mistaked for a jammy badger and slapped to within an inch of his front doorway Short pause while the stage is divested of its musical paraphernalia

    King Syze: Egad, daughter! This is no lovely place! We affect creditors and duns night and day, the Israelites beat at our honest Gentile gates as though the hordes of Assyria were baying at their feet. My stars, it's money we require and it's money we shall have, if the suits of Lord Angerman and Count Spondulicks can be secured. Now, repair to your chambers and select a silken robe with which to ensnare one of these upstanding young social pillars.

  • Meediam: [Aside] These venal machinations are intolerable! My soul is opprest with sorrow at them. I shall scape this house and seek out John Lovelie myself if Azulejo reneges on his servile duties... [Exit, upstairs]

    Enter Lady Thick

  • Lady Thick: Zounds, Your Majority, I thought she would never eviscerate these permutations! Now impeculiate to me the brobdingnagian taramasalata of your fricative plan!
  • King Syze: Not at all, my dear. You know of course of my dealings with that fearful serf Boleti, a man destitute of all charity and goodwill. Now, I intend to have him abscond with Meediam for a number of days, thereby allowing me to issue a reward in the names of the Lord and the Count
  • Lady Thick: Mercy on me, truly a dingalingaling brontosaurus plank! Faith!
  • King Syze: I then expect to collect on this bounty myself, and acquire double the amount I would from their dowry combined. I now have only to attend the arrival of my venomous servants!
  • Peugeot: gasps
  • Sheridan
    [8] Jammy Badgerslapping Covent Garden

    Baker's Two
    [9] [Deleted verse from the DVD] "Eye wanna funk this jammy badger o' mine/I'll slap it with mah cricket bat so fine/No m**********r's gonna slap him 'fore I'm done/I'll slap im till he's got only one lung" Sebastian: I cain't stan' any more o'this!

    Sebastian pulls a shotgun and shoots TAFKATSUTRTAFKAP stone dead. Cheers from Audience

    Belle: Oh Brother Man what'd you do thayat fower? Man I heard 'im sayin' he was the Prince! An' now we ain't got no fella to come dragon slayin' over New Years'. Man you is so inconsiderate sometimes.

  • Sebastian: Landsakes, woman, I'd string im up for the crows if I had to. Remember when we first met, you liked it when I did things like that. Hell, now you cain't stand 'n' be reminded of em. That's women for you.

    Belle moves to TAFKATSUTRTAFKAP and strokes his head

  • Belle: Man he was so hot. All he ever wanted was to get on the mike. Hell, Mike weren't too pleased about it but hey. He wanted to funk me on the stairs and on the pool table, too. Dontcha remember when you'd sweet-talk to me that ways? Oh ma Prince! Ma Prince!

    Enter Graziela, who immediately starts attacking Belle

  • Graziela: Hands off ma Prince, woman! He's-a mine! [both start rolling in the sandy earth]
  • Belle: Get yer own Prince, lady, he were makin' eyes at me ever since fourth grade

    Enter Prince Charming

  • Sebastian: Why hi, young'un. These dames, they fightin' over you, boy.
  • Prince: Oh the humanity! [bursts into tears, exits]

  • Tennessee Williams

    [10] Slide in a bunch of badgers by their necks, stretch them properly, coat them liberally with a paintbrush of jam, push two halves of workmate together and... FUNCTION THE SECOND: A portable "=" sign for signalling maths problems to low-flying aircraft
    101 Uses for a Black & Decker Workmate
    [11] The French originally took to badger-slapping as a way of getting thier livers to burst out through the top of their heads. This was then deep-fried with liberal amounts of jam in order to make a piquant sauce for duckling [Escoffier, II, pp.97-9] Scene 3: Police Station. Prince Charming is behind bars and being interrogated

    Constable Gerard: According to your statement (let me see),
    You were born in 1973
    And were raised in order to rid the lands
    Of any foul beast that dare lay its hands
    Upon them. Yet you also planned to liberate us
    From any awful female impersonators
    That dared get up and act most hammily
    With poor renditions of "We Are Family"
    I must point out the passage where you said
    "We're gonna strike him on the head,
    Until he falls down dead."
    Can one, in this age, act as you have done?

  • Prince Charming: My distaste's catholic; I despise everyone.
    I've never come to terms with this, and hope
    That you'll understand my plea as misanthrope.
    Besides, in fact he took me by surprise and
    Hit me with a showstopper by Streisand
    (And some other fellow
    I'd never heard of before called Yello)
    And if that's not enough, my clothing should evince
    My highfalutin status as a Prince!
  • Constable: Your testimony seems a bit alarming
    Whether or not you're the real Prince Charming.
    There's only room for one "PC" round here
    And not the one with bad behaviour!

    Enter Boleti

  • Boleti: Your Highness, news! Your freedom can be bought!
  • Prince Charming: I told you that I'd see you all in court!
  • Boleti: No, listen! I can save you from this tedium,
    But you'll have to help me win your sister, Meediam!
    I have the bail you need to be released
    Despite your murder of Miss Bourne the Beast
  • Prince Charming: [Aside] This callow fool knows nought. Perhaps Boleti
    Should go the way of poor old Mister Bette!
    But no, I'll let him bail me out of this mess
    Then maybe I'll get to meet the Princess!
    [Not aside] Gerard! This man's prepared to put up bail
    To spring me out of your disgusting jail!
  • Constable: That's fair enough. It's 1500 Francs
    Boleti: And now we'll go and meet your sister!
  • Prince Charming: Thanks. [Exeunt]

  • Moliere (in the ubiquitous Neil Bartlett translation)
    [12] Badgers can't help laughing when slapped with jam. Try it now Titter ... Smirk
    Straight Face
    [13] Bert actually absconded to get away from his girlfriend. In all other respects she was quite normal, but whenever they were in bed together, at the crucial moment she tended to cry out the immortal phrase.... [Exit baritone]

  • Graziela: No! I'm finished with oats! [All freeze, shocked] My internal reverie has illuminated the path before me like a glow of Ready Brek. It is the woman whose shoe was lost here last night who can save us.
  • Boleti: Nothing can save us. Our oat harvest was the poorest for two decades and the encroaching modernisation of the neighbouring farmyards forces us to move to Siberia.
  • Graziela: No. There's a thunder-cloud advancing toward us, a mighty storm coming to freshen us up, and it will blow away your ingrained indifference to the world around you.
  • Azulejo: Nonsense. You want to understand the society, you must study the oats. They dance and wave amid the buffets and torrents of fate and destiny, they yield their oaty goodness only through the determination of sheer bone-idleness. We are no other than a glutinous flapjack in the gaping maw of the Almighty. Bert, pass me that shoe.

    But answer came there none

  • Boleti: Bert absconded last night. He was afraid of the glowing light on the horizon and the smell of burning oats on the night air. [Distant sound of crackling flames]
  • Azulejo: No! They're burning the oat fields! Oh what a metaphor this must be! Help us smoeone, help!

    Enter mysterious stranger with one shoe

  • The Oats/Chekhov Interface
    [14] Try slapping a badger with a jam-filled Cartier bracelet. Or else ...your covert activities against the Nestlé corporation, your ongoing campaign to rid the world of the horrors of Nescafé, Milky Bar, KitKat, Smash, Smarties..."

    Steve put a Nailwell-manicured finger over Nicola's exquisitely Revlonned lips. "Hush now, Bulgari," he whispered, sending a thrill through Nicola's entire Lipo-LovelyTM torso as he used her favourite pet name. "Just ring your friends, Dorothy Perkins, Miss Selfridge, Ann Summers, St. Michael, Sue Ryder..."

    "Maybe not her."

    "Okay, just play with this Fort Knox gold bullion till I get back. My, you look truly Brillo-pad today. Your eyes like Swarovski crystal, those teeth like..." "Colgate, particularly. Bring me back something really special. Something like... like..."

    Cartier Bracelet
    [15] Princess Laguna is in fact played by a jammy badger. Not quite a celebrity in her own right, but after winning the lead in the new Scorsese production, just watch this space. (Needless to say, she's a bit of a slapper) Mrs Dragon: Oi! Your band!
  • The KLF: What about them?
  • Mrs Dragon: No, I mean you're banned! Get out of ere! [chases KLF off stage with broom] Mrs Dragon: Can't have them cluttering up the place. We're very fastidious.
    Dragon: Yes, I'm fast and she's hideous.
  • Mrs Dragon: Watch it, mush. Now, what do we do with this bagpipe band?
  • Dragon: Boil in the bag?
  • Mrs Dragon: Maybe we could do em like we did Peugeot the Fool the other day.
  • Dragon: Yeah, but that tasted funny to me.
  • Mrs Dragon: I'll have you know my cooking's Cordon Bleu!
  • Dragon: Should be cordoned off, more like
  • Mrs Dragon: They call me the new Rick Stein!
  • Dragon: Tastes more like Rix Petrol.
  • Mrs Dragon: I dunno then. [to bagpipers] How would you like to be eaten?
  • Bagpipers: Er, no thank you. [squeal on bagpipes and leg it]
  • Mrs Dragon: That's strange. One of them had a badge on. It said "I'm Highland bred." Or something.
  • Dragon: Don't believe everything you read on the pipers, dear.
  • Prince Charming: I hate to mention it, but I was just going to kill you...

    Shouts and screams offstage of "Help, Help! Save Me! Someone, Please!"

    Prince Charming: Oh what was that?

  • Dragon: Er - "Save Me Some Peas!"

    Enter Princess Laguna, blonde and ravishing, possibly played by celeb of your choosing

  • Oh Yes It Is!
    [16] I hope someone starts Jammy Badger-flavour MC next move. I'll slap em all round the court Hmm, you've got me. I *farkle* but reserving home at Russell Square
    Vanilla MC
    [17] The Magnificent Seven - slap jammy badgers Se7en - Paltrow gives head
    Tasteless Butler Did It
    [18] But not quite as much as the game of Slap My Jammy Badger
    Bollocks
    [19] I have two badgers right here with me. I've called them Penelope and Blob. One of them has just slapped the other with jam. It's all happening today on Big Badger! 9,994 I yearn for you madly, your firm, manly arms, your flowing chestnut hair, I want you to take me and hold me close for all eternity as I burn in the fire of your passion, as I melt into a glow of unbridled scintillating love.
    10,000 comments Pen wouldn't make to Blob
    [20] What is a jammy badger and why should it be slapped so much? If someone with a multiple personality disorder threatens suicide, is it a hostage situation?
    Stupid Questions
    [21] How about *splut* Oooh! Mkk mmk mmkkkk! No, no, this is clearly an outtake from David V. Goliath - The Rematch, a fair fight set in a boxing ring.

    *click* kwarkwarkwarbzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz... Zhoomph WHAM! Zhoomph WHAM! Zhoomph WHAM!

    Douglas Smith
    [22] Unlike Jam Splat Wally, where a Monty Mole-type clone goes round picking up jamjars without getting splatted by the pneumatic pistons I'll open at Macaroni Ted, with a podume on the Spacecraft from Zzoom!

    Jet Set Willy
    [23] Obviously the Pope is an inveterate badger-slapper, and lives only on Jam up in Castel Gandolfo with his three little stoats
    OR SURGEON - ALLEGATION DENIED

    Small HYPEarthquakers
    [24] Clue: It's not "Slap My Jammy Badger!" [matt] The Return Of Fucking = The Return Of The King?
    And, similarly... [rab] Bored Of The Rings?
    God knows I've had enough time to think about them. Anyway, moving swiftly on...

    Aerial shot of a Flash Crowd: Film, 4 words


  • Ginny: Ah, Cherie!
  • Cherie: Ah, Ginny! Whaur's yer mahn, then?
  • Ginny: Och, he's awa' wi' 'is folks back in Mexico. Mind, Ah've brocht ma wee bairns!
  • Cherie: Hoots! They're bonny lasses 'n' lads, eh! Which one's which?
  • Ginny: Weel, here's bricht little Jack Daniels. And thissen's Arch Ers. And over here's ma braw little Ollie Roso, and a Monty Lado...
  • Cherie: Begorrah! Er, as ma Irish friends'd say. Ye must be real fussy wi' 'em!
  • Ginny:Aye, an' ma guid mon too! 'E dusna use theyer names, 'e just calls em all...

  • Sound Charades
    [25] David Blaine is currently thinking "Oh, how many jammy badgers I'm going to slap when I get out of this stupid box!" Many students have taken to slapping jammy badgers on the box and trying to mke them stick, just to tantalise him
  • Thursday: Today the big log-shaped thing was over here on this side of the box. By the afternoon, I could swear it had moved to the other side. I'm beginning to fear for my sanity. Honestly, living off the dead carcasses of house-dust mites and weevils in the bedclothes is enough to send anyone just a tiny bit bonkers, but I had the strangest feeling this afto, that the log thing was actually watching me. With a hungry glint in its stony grey little eye. My, these hallucinations are starting to kick in earlier than I expected. There's big yellow spots before my eyes too, kind of yellow, egg-sized ones. Log has started slowly pawing at them with what looks like a tongue. No, I must have imagined it.

  • Dee Twinty-Sivin As The Fly Trapped In David Blaine's Box
    [26] Richard Gere once played King Caractacus. Backstage, after the orgy scene, he remained so in character that he obtained a badger, lubricated it with jam, and slapped it up his... [Snip! Ed.] Now, the ladies of the harem of the court of King Caractacus
    Were just passing by (All together at this point!)
    The current moment, the women of the seraglio of the palace of the aforementioned ruler
    Came past a short time ago
    The instant here, the females of the love nest of the hall of that monarch
    Went thataway slightly previously,
    At present, the girls of the knocking-shop of the throne-room of the previously-named regal man
    Recently travelled alongside the viewer

    The immediate second, the fascinating witches who put the scintillating stitches in the britches of the boys who laid the powder on the noses of the faces of the birds of the brothel of the grotto of said kingly bloke
    Forthwith moved along in the direction indicated (Everyone join in!)
    The haecceitious chronological point, the interesting sorceresses that placed the engrossing threads in the trousers of the lads what dabbed the heroin on the nasal growths of the visages of the feminine people of the mollyhouse of the realm's symbolic heart of the mentioned royal guy
    Crossed our line of vision a mere tad back
    The second neither in the future nor earlier, the intriguing hags as entered the exciting sutures in the pantaloons of the male kids which sprinkled cocaine onto the probosces of the physiognomies of the uterus-bearing citizens of the whorerooms of the kingdom's judicial centre of the named sovereign
    Left the area where we stand in the most recent seconds
    The precise minute I write these words, the captivating crones who set the absorbing seams into the slacks of the manly youths who chucked angel dust over the snouts of the countenances of the broads of the screwing place of the courtiers' rightful stamping-ground of the potentate I've already identified
    Departed my life lately

    So if you want to take some pictures of the engaging enchantresses who've lain the entrancing thin strings in the kecks of the masculine children who ladled PCP on the conks of the dames of Priapus's paradise of the natural abode of the country's trusted advisors of the number-one-big-fella whose identity was revealed by me, you're TOO LATE!
    (NOT EARLY ENOUGH!)
    Because they've freshly... passed... away!!!

    Just A Minim
    [27] Slap My Jammy Badger! Jammy Badger-Slapping was the breakout sport in this year's World Championship games, so I felt it was worthwhile publicising it in this forum too

    Celebrity Commentary

     

    Thanks again to matt for the table (and the good set-ups). And it's over to you :o)
    [MF] Congratulations, both on the move and for getting it through the checker. I will improve this one day. I don't think there's anything to dislike about your move. Must try harder next time (though I don't know how many times I'll be able to sidestep these theatrical parodies...).
    Bravo! Especially on the extra SMJB bits.
    I see that "Bravo!" and raise you a "Hurrah!" A work of genius. Without wishing to in any way downplay the plays, which I love, the workmate function is one of the funniest things I've seen in ages.

    Oh. Bugger. Does that make it my turn?

    Really? Isn't it strange how the best moves take the least time? (The longest one to do was easily Just A Minim.) And I've no idea why the picture doesn't work.
    Tuj has spent most of this afternoon preparing a move, imminent within the next couple of days. Unlikely but true.
    Before I start let me present my credentials:
    1) I have staunchly opposed Acre Street whenever it has sprung up
    2) I have never played Stratford-upon-Crescent
    3) I know very little of plays beyond GCSE Shakespeare
    4) I love Just A Minim

    So, cringe and expect the worst. Tactically refurcating each of the dramatic strands with another furcation will reduce the number of furcations, as I expect one of the two things shoehorned together will win out soon enough. It's like Darwin.
    Now read on:

    A: The chassis of a Euripidean drama crudely welded to the back end of Just A Minim
    From previous furcations 1 & 26
    Lutenist: Sirrah, the hour of birthday bash is now
    Wouldst thou like to hear a cheery song, perchance?
    Here be a song to sooth thy worried brow
    So come and with our weasel comp'ny dance!
    space(strums and sings)
    Look for the bare necessities
    The simple stripped-down vitals
    Forget about your worries and your strife
    I mean the plain essentials
    Are Mother Nature's recipes
    That bring the basic requirements of life

    Seek out the essential needs
    The uncomplicated minimum obligations
    Think not of your anxieties and apprehension
    I'm trying to convey the unembellished fundamentals
    That's why a bear can rest at ease
    With just the straightforward musts of being

    Now when you pick a pawpaw
    Or a prickly pear
    And you prick a raw paw
    Well, next time, beware
    Don't pick the spiky apple-like edible
    By the palm area
    At the time you pluck out an elongated green fruit
    Try to use the claw
    But you don't need to utilise the talon
    When you harvest a pair of the big tropical delicacy mentioned in the first line of this verse

    Search after the ursine things you can't live without
    The unadorned grizzly's indispensables
    Cast from your mind thine trials and tribulations
    I am implying the merest crucial things
    Which is why a teddy could rest at leisure
    Using merely Pooh's imperative concepts of this mortal coil
    Getting by only on Paddington's important ideologies of living!
    space(collapses)
    space(dancers continue as King Syze goes over to Lutenist)

    King Syze: You know of bears and weasels, it is plain
    My trouble's with sardines; could you explain?

    Lutenist: Dunno, ask Graziela. (keels over again)

    King Syze: Were that the name of Graziel' I hear?
    And that then would confirm my greatest fear?
    My swornèd enemy is truly here?
    space(dancers stop. Graziela steps forward)
    B: The bare necessities of a game of Spanklines
    From previous furcation 2
    Don't shout, or everyone'll want one.

    How do you start a teddy bear race?
    C: Dee Twenty-Sivin as the fly trapped in a Pinterian Drama
    From previous furcations 3 & 25
    Friday: I'm well travelled now. Been in that house full of BB-bastards, and that box with the log in it, and now I'm in this big Medieval thing. Funny, the bastards here speak just like the first band of bastards. Like, today, this happened:

    Graziela: Ah, there he is!
    King Syze: Who? And who're you?
    Graziela: (ignoring him) My pet bear. How he got under a cabinet here I dunno.
    Peugeot: A bear!? Bloody hell!
    King Syze: Ah piss, the great hairy bugger's coming out from under the cabinet!

    And when the log with the shiny top on it said that, this great hairy groaning thing, like the logs but much bigger, suddenly jumped up. It chased all the logs around the room! F*ck me it was funny.
    space(buzzes off as scene ends)

    D: Carpe Diem, bartender, and hold the bears
    From previous furcation 4
    With enough money, any tonker can become a domineering politican.

    Falls Sie Schmuck tragen, sollten Sie diesen während der Fahrt verdecken.
    E: Joe Orton's take on a classical drama. Enter the tasteless butler...
    From previous furcations 5 & 17
    Act One, Scene Three

    Another room in Castle Drogo, the next morning.
    (enter the tasteless butler, in conversation with Azulejo)


    Ozzy Osbourne (for it is he) : Look, mate, I saw it through a hole in the f___in wall! The f___in lute fella gave Francoise a proper f___in f___in. He put one of his hands in her f___in-

    Azulejo: Whoa, steady on!

    Ozzy Osbourne: Well f___ me, I though you'd be f___in interested! I mean, this actually f___in happened, not like that lilac fire-breathing f___in grizzly bear I saw running round the place last Thursday.

    (enter Graziela)

    Graziela: Azulejo! Get away from that tasteless butler! Come hither, we have plots to scheme and schemes to plot.

    (exit Azulejo and Graziela)

    Ozzy Osbourne: Well, I know when I'm not f___in wanted.
    space(turns, flinches)
    F___ me! It's that f___in bear again!
    space(exit, chased by thin air)
    F: Late Review nostalgically looks back on what a late cat thought of 10,000 reverse comments pen wouldn't make to Blob
    From previous furcations 6 & 19
    Mark Lawson: Tonight on Late Review, we nostaligcally look back on what a late cat though of 10,000 reverse comments penelope wouldn't make to Blob. Tom Paulin, your view?

    Tom Paulin: Well, Mark, frankly I totally agreed with Tiddles' thoughts on this one. I have no criticisms to make at all, in fact.

    Mark Lawson: How do you defend such a non-controversial stand-point?

    Tom Paulin: Well, you did just wake me up.

    Mark Lawson: O, K, then, Germaine Greer?

    Germaine Greer: Weell I find this all just impossible to believe! The idea that this character penelope (she pronounces it to rhyme with 'antelope') would never say these things to Blob is negated by the fact that these statements have been aired where penelope can clearly read them, and so she is far more likely to say them! And frankly the whole business of reversals and the ridiculous cat motif just make it even less credible!

    (pause)

    Mark Lawson: So-

    Germaine Greer: (interrupting) Frankly it all just reeks of the male chauvinism so typical of today's society!

    (pause)

    Mark Lawson: So?

    Germaine Greer: No, I've finished now. Do your bit.

    Mark Lawson: Don't boss me about, I'm the presenter! Pedro, get her!

    (exit Germaine Greer, chased by a bear)

    Mark Lawson: No-one messes with Mark "The Hard Man" Lawson.

    (credits roll)
    G: The noble sound charades of Sheridan
    From previous furcations 7 & 24
    (three hours later)

    Peugeot: (yawns)

    Lady Thick: A Miriam (sic.) of confounditudes upon your tardy servants! Zounds, a pair of hours ago did I expectorate them.

    King Syze: Peugeot, fool, will you not disport ourselves with some diverse divertion?

    Peugeot: My liege, picture in your imaginings a noble knight, who upon his shield bears the legend 'Film: 2 words'

    King Syze: (to Lady Thick) My lady you shall find this ostracizes your ennui. 'Tis my favourite game of 'Sound Charades'.

    Peugeot: Now imagine a couple, promenading. Their names are Alpheus and Serena. Now see Alpheus' friend Benedict as he comes over to them. They speak as follows:
    Benedict: Ah, so this is the lady who ensnared you in marriage, Alf? This is 'her'?
    Alpheus: Ah, yes. Let me introduce you: 'her', Ben ...

    (pauses)

    Lady Thick: Yes, yes, continue...

    Peugeot: Nay, now you should know the answer.

    (awkward silence; enter a bedraggled Boleti, chased by a bear)
    H: Baker's Two
    From previous furcation 8 - though as a late starter, this move is forced, and even an unintelligent stuffed bear would know what's coming next move now...
    Hammersmith, buggeration.
    I: Tennessee "Bollocks!" Williams
    From previous furcations 9 & 18
    Graziela: Look what you gone done now, missy.
    Belle: Bollocks! I ain't done nothin'! Anyhow, he's mine faw the doin'!
    Graziela: Bollocks! He's mine!
    Belle: Bollocks! He's mine!
    Graziela: Bollocks!
    Belle: Bollocks!
    space(they continue shouting 'Bollocks!' louder and louder, until:)
    space(enter Azulejo)
    Azulejo: BOLLOCKS! (silences women) Graziela, ma'am - bayd noos. Prince Charming darn well ran into a grizzly bear, an' well, an' - it made faw him an' tore off his...
    All: ... Bollocks?
    Azulejo: You could say that.
    J: 101 Uses for a Black and Decker Workmate
    From previous furcation 10
    FUNCTION THE THIRD: Bear trap. Disguised as a picnic basket (to attract the bears, obviously), wait in the middle of Yellowstone Park until one comes along. As it does, close the 2 halves of the Workmate as it puts its foot between them, thus trapping it. For best effects, use in conjunction with Black and Decker Deluxe Plus toolkit - the secret website address on the underside of the lid gives details of how all the tools (even including gruesome uses for the Allen keys) double up as bear-torturing devices!
    K: The playwrightship of Molière (Celebrity Commentary c/o Neil Bartlett)
    From previous furcations 11 & 27
    Act One, Scene Four

    Princess Meediam sits alone in Castle de Plitploth, reading aloud from OK! magazine or somesuch.

    Meediam: "Prince Charming, bro of Meediam," (that's me)
    "Has been released from police custody
    Though for murdering Bette he was locked in jail
    It seems his manservant has stumped up bail
    Nigel Boleti, valet, 32
    Was not available for interview
    The rumours say he's gone the way of Bette
    That Charming is a double murd'rer, yet
    This would seem unlikely, had he not been banned
    From his own castle, and thus fled the land
    Where he was born. Apparently he were
    Seen riding o'er the borders on a bear."
    Oh, brother, it would be dramatic if
    You came back here, though banished, for a tiff.
    space(enter Prince Charming and Boleti)
    Well, whaddaya know!
    L: Straight face
    From previous furcation 12
    Bear ... Arsed
    M: What is the true meaning of the Let Me Chekhov My Oats Interface?
    From previous furcations 13 & 20
    Graziela: (to the mysterious stranger, Bert)Are you Bert?
    Bert: I don't know. Are you Bert?
    All: Nope.
    Bert: Then by process of elimination, I am Bert. Similarly, I fancy a steaming bowl of porridge.
    space(exit Boleti, to get porridge)
    Azulejo: Why are you wearing one shoe?
    Bert: Why are you wearing two?
    Azulejo: To warm my feet!
    Bert: Why, that's the reason I wear mine!
    Graziela: Why have you one foot uncovered?
    Bert: So as not to trample oats. If an oat burns in a field where no-one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?
    space(enter Boleti)
    Boleti: My lords and ladies, through the kitchen window I saw every last field of oats aflame!
    Bert: Were a bear to run through a flaming field of oats fast enough, could it remain unsinged?
    Gadzooks! What is that?
    space(exit Bert, chased by a bear)
    Boleti: Would porridge extinguish a flaming field of oats?
    Prince Charming: It is our last hope...
    N: MC, Vanilla
    From previous furcation 16
    Home at Goodge Street, of course, but after that farkle, I'll avoid a Great Bear Shift and play Chalfont & Latimer
    O: The eternal panto season we know as 'Oh Yes It Is!' continues - featuring Douglas Smith wearing a Cartier bracelet
    From previous furcations 14 & 15 & 21
    Douglas Smith: I, Douglas Smith, dressed up in 'comedy damsel' style, with pink Prada party frock and blonde wig carelessly bodged together from a B&Q mop. I stride forward confidently in my bright pink Hush Puppies (stride, stride, stride), my Slazenger tennis ball breasts humorously bobbing up and down (yoingg, yoingg, boungg).

    Prince Charming: New balls please? I couldn't lever a joke in here even with a Black and Decker Workmate attachment.

    Douglas Smith: I deliver, by UPS, my line:
    'Save me, for I have run out of Wrigley's Orbit chewing gum! I long for its seven spearmint strips with xylitol for healthier teeth! Help. Someone help!
    Then I laugh coquettishly, proving I am as thick as a Tesco's Strawberry milkshake: tee hee, tee hee, ho. Ha.

    Prince Charming: I've heard more convincing laughs from this audience tonight! Hang on! (raises hand over eyes) If I'd had my Oakley's on I would've seen it sooner! A shape on the horizon!

    Douglas Smith: My, it is a funny shape! Titter!
    space(enter angry bear, stage left. It snarls at Douglas Smith)

    Douglas Smith: Eek. Eek, aargh. Help.
    space(exit Douglas Smith, chased by a bear)
    P: Seen any good films recently?
    The fag ends of previous furcation 17
    Bought The Matrix: Reloaded on DVD yesterday. Haven't watched it yet, but it seemed pretty darn good when I saw it at the cinema in May.
    Q: Jet Set Willy
    From previous furcation 22
    Erm... I can bearly barely get away with a *farkle* here.
    R: Small HYPEarthquakes
    From previous furcation 23
    CELIBATE , CLAIMS BY FROM
    URSINE NOR EVENTUALLY VERIFIED
    Apologies for any typos, errors, etc, but after 18 hours of work (yeah, I took my time over it), when the HTML checker spat it back in my face twice I failed to care any more!
    Now let the criticisms (though hopefully more moves as well, as this could be the start of the end game) begin!
    Tuj - an admirable first move Sir. I hope this game goes on and on. I should mention that I intend to mprove the helpfulness of the HTML checker - but it might be a while til I get the chance. In the meantime you might wish to run it through an online validator (e.g. this one).
    arrow_circle_down
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