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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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[Ibid] I'm still working on one, sort of.
[Projoy] Was meinst Du wenn Du sagst, "in irgendwelcher Art"? Ich meine, so viele Anstrengend ist es nicht, oder?
[rab] You may find that posting to an English-language website in German will not win you friends or influence people. Don't do it again, or I'll send the boys round. Oh, and it's Anstrenge, not Anstrengend.
[rab] Yeah.
I have move.
But I no think you like.
[Martha] Well, I've realised there's nothing doing with mine for the next couple of months, sadly, although it was a rather good concept, tho I say so myself, so I guess your move would at least provide some action.
I wondered if you'd seize the chance to gazump me. :o) And I gave another night to add a bit of Ibsen, Shaw, Mamet, Noh drama and Thos. But then I thought "why bother"?
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).
    [rab] Well, it was your table I hijacked and repainted...
    Needless to say, the fault was in the repainting (didn't close a font color="white" tag)
    [Tuj] A deeply impressive début.
    Bravo Tuj!
    Ah, a lawsuit.
    Going to hire your wife as your lawyer?
    So, any takers on a next move?
    Go on, you know you want to.
    I think, nominally, it's matt's turn. *tumbleweed*
    I'm still working on it, but too busy for the next couple of weeks.
    I also think that it's nominally my turn, but I'm not going to be taking it just now so if anyone else wants to weigh in, please do.
    I'm just hoping that my next move happens to coincide with the Christmas break so I can have an excuse for not talking to my family. (Apart from the fact that I'm a curmudeonly old cove).
    [rab] I think it's your go. [Tuj] You didn't answer my charade. And what happened to the Celeb Commentary? Or was that the bear?
    [MF] Really? If I recall it went matt, me, you, Tuj ... so certainly matt has to play before me, unless he bows out.
    I thought it went me, [anyone], [someone else], me... so as to avoid any one person monopolising the game by playing every other move
    Oh.
    [MF] Your charade baffled me, and considering it went into the dramatisation, they couldn't guess it as it wasn't in the play before. Accusation 2 also denied: the celebrity commentary (which I didn't fully understand) became celebrity commentary in the OK! magazine read by Meediam in strand K (the article being about notable celebrity Prince Charming).
    Completely, badger-buggeringly, insane.

    Bravo!

    Mornington Crescent?
    No. Projoy's working on a move, and if you want to be taken seriously you should tell us who you are.
    [rab] Projoy's doing one? Joy!
    [Suggestion to Suggestion] Clear orff, the bloodlust is clouding your vision!
    [Tuj] He muttered something along those lines in the Pilgrim's game at Orange. However, the proof, as they say, will be in the synthetic whipped-cream dessert.
    If someone doesn't move soon, I'm going to claim a win. Tuj's move was illegal.
    I am not, by the way, Suggestion
    Why was it illegal? I take that as an insult of a very personal nature, and that's before you've evenexplained why.
    I didn't create the celeb commentary for my health, you know. Saying you didn't understand it isn't good enough. I suggest you put it back in.
    Yes, I am working on a move. This process has so far consisted of conceiving the correct form for it. I'm bored with tables and Good HTML, and besides, one of Martha's initial reverse comments to Projoy implied that it would be an attempt to reunify all the strands, a promise I intend to fulfil. In addition I need to learn a bit of Korean, and, being me, add an impossible new set of things to do.
    And you'll get a pat on the back and a hearty well done if you do. And what greater incentive could there be?
    I shure hope Projoy is working on a move, as I'm currently testing an improved HTML checker (with integral visual tag jiggler) which I hope to put online in the next couple of days. Should help with those lengthy submissions.
    *completely gratuitous posting alert* What a mouth-watering prospect! A lengthy submission by Projoy, aided by a rab's tag jiggler.
    Yes, as soon as this panto is over...
    Although I can't necessarily promise something really profound for your jiggler to get its teeth into.
    [rab, Tuj et al] To be honest, the only reason I've got it in for this game is because I don't understand it. And suggestions are, in the grand tradition of life, there to be ignored :) And the day I am taken seriously is the day I may have to shuffle off this mortal coil. Would anyone like to explain the game for me?
    Simple. 'A' plays a move. 'B' plays a more complicated move. Continue until someone's head explodes.
    My head exploded after the fifth move....
    Read, tried understanding, failed.
    It helps if you read from the birth...
    ...and of course bear in mind that this game was actually played the first time in special conditions in 1953. It is now being spooled out with the moves in reverse order for your amusement. The reason for the current seeming long gap is that at this stage in 1953 the original Dr Heinz Tuj died of syphalis when it was his turn. The others therefore used transcripts of what he had said previously to piece together a final (or initial, as it is being reproduced backwards) move for him. Now read on.
    Ohhhh, so that's what this game is! I thought it was just a two-stranded MC game. Brilliant stuff, everyone. I particularly like the reunifying aspect.
    I may make a move at some point in the future (I take it's not going to go away too soon) but not at all imminently. (It's a bit disturbing that I missed Acre Street whilst away from MC, isn't it?)
    OK, I give up. Life is just not long enough.
    Me too....
    I'm still working on a move (honest, just started again). Should I try and reunify everything, or is anyone else out there still planning to move?
    Do what you like... and a new move might act as a fillip to re-enter the play!
    That's what I thought... I hope that the end is not nigh!
    Well, I was almost ready to give up the ghost with Projoy and rab, but if Brendan is willing to breathe new life into this game then who knows? And at least it will mean we don't have to enter into the nightmare of a judicial review to decide whether Martha or Tuj takes the prize.
    Herewith my humble offering; I've managed to unify several of the theatrical strands, though in the process I've had to force their non-play subcomponents off into other furcations, which may create a few instabilities here and there ...
    i) Ensemble Celebrity Commentary
    non-theatrical component of previous furcation K
    Since Tuj atomised the celeb commentary by including it in a play, it looks like the only way to resolve the impasse is to have a different commentator for each move. To that end, this move's celebrity commentary will be provided by ... the characters from Little Britain Tom Baker (VO): But what is the people of Little Britain? Who be they? What strategies do they employ in overcomplicated games of Mornington Crescent?
    ii) Six Film and Crescent Styles in Search of a Chairman
    in which the theatrical elements of previous furcations A, C, E, G, I and K are crudely welded together
    [All suddenly find themselves on a featureless white plain -- or possibly in a featureless white room, it is impossible to tell]

    Graziela (Euripidean version): Aye, King Syze, I am here, to take away the life you hold so dear!

    Graziela (Pinterian version): Well, I'm fucking well here as well. But where the buggery is here?

    Graziela (Orton version): Not a clue, but I do know where the buggery is.

    Graziela (Sheridan version): This utterly unanticipated turn of events leaves me distressingly discombobulated!

    Graziela (Williams version): Ah jest don' have the faintest idea what's goin' on.

    Graziela (Molière trans. Bartlett version): Events indeed are at a pretty pass/when stranded in limbo is this 'ere lass!

    King Syze: Oh, do stop talking to yourself, Graziela! Someone tell me what the hell's going on here!

    Azulejo: Sire, it appears that we have become trapped inside a game of Film and Crescent Styles.

    Lady Thick: Well, in that case shouldn't there be someone in charge?

    King Syze: (coughs loudly)

    Lady Thick: Erm, not that you're not, of course, my dear King Syze.

    King Syze: Yes, thank you. But you speak the truth; we needs must find a chairman.

    Meediam: Perhaps Clive Anderson is nearby.

    Boleti: What about Nicholas Parsons?

    Graziela: (all six of whom have unified into one being while we weren't looking) Or maybe Nigel Rees?

    King Syze: Control yourself, Graziela! There's no need for such desperation yet.

    Azulejo: Sire! I dimply perceive, by some preternatural sense, that beyond this game is another, of which this one we now inhabit is but a fraction; games upon games stretching into infinity like --

    Humph: (wakes, startled; honks his rubber trumpet thing) Right, that's quite enough of that metafictional round. The next style is Gilbert and Sullivan.
    Vicky Pollard: Yeah, but no, but yeah; I mean, I know I was supposed to learn the lines for the school play but Tanya -- not Tanya who was going out with Michael but dumped him for David because she said he was better at snoggin' -- not her, the ugly Tanya who I think's a lezzer but she says she ain't -- she told me that the play had been cancelled so I didn't think I 'ad to, did I?, and I know Michaela says it was 'cos I was getting off with Michael what Tanya had just dumped -- not ugly Tanya, the other one, of course it couldn't have been ugly Tanya, 'cos she's a lezzer, in't she, so how could she have dumped him? durr! -- and by the way, David is better at snoggin' than him, but of course Tanya -- not ugly Tanya -- doesn't know I know that, and you mus'n't tell her, but anyway, it's not 'cos I was snoggin' him that I didn't learn the lines, and you shouldn't listen to Michaela anyway 'cos she's cross-eyed in both eyes. Don't give me evils!
    iii) Spanklines
    the continuation of B
    Start up the stuffing removal machine.

    What's black and white and red all over?
    Des Kaye: My jokes were much better than that when I was on the telly. Wikki Woo! Des can't hear you! Wikki WOO!!
    iv) Carpe Diem
    the furtherance of furcation D
    Only a schmuck sets lights to his farts in a diesel vehicle

    Veni, vidi, vici
    Dame Sally Markham: Are you getting all this down, Grace? "He looked into her eyes and said, 'Have you ever read Caesar's commentaries on the Gallic Wars, my dear? I find them quite inspiring. Let me read them to you!' He took the book from the shelf and opened it. '"All Gaul is divided into three parts, one of which the Belgae inhabit ..."'" You can find the rest on the shelf, Grace.
    v) Just a Late Review
    F meets the non-theatrical components of A
    Mark Lawson: I'd like to start tonight's show by reading a brief statement prepared by the BBC's lawyers. It was wrong of me to unleash a bear on Germaine Greer on last week's edition of the show, and I apologise whole-heartedly to for any suffering and distress that may have been caused both to Germaine and any viewers at home of a nervous disposition. Further, please do not copy my example at home; I am a trained bear handler and unleasher.

    Germaine Greer: Thank you, Mark. Don't worry, I won't hold it against you; it was just all that testosterone in your bloodstream. Male humans really are much more worthwhile individuals they get taken over by their hormones, you know. In fact I've recently written a book about that very subject--

    Tom Paulin: Here, if she's allowed to plug her book, I should get a chance to promote my epic poem about World War Two.

    Mark Lawson: Except that I haven't tried to kill you recently, Tom.

    Tom Paulin: Oh, right so.

    Mark Lawson: Moving on to tonight's programme, first we look at the film version of the long-running musical Chicago. Tom, what did you think?

    Tom Paulin: That Catherine Zeta Jones is a bit of all right, isn't she? Renee Zellweger, not so much, but you would, wouldn't you?

    Mark Lawson: Thank you, Tom. Germaine?

    Germaine Greer: I really liked it actually. My favourite bit was the opening sequence in the club, when Catherine Zeta Jones sang that number that went a little something like this:

    [Germaine unexpectedly stands up, revealing that she is wearing a short skirt, suspenders and dancing shoes. To the visible surprise of Mark and Tom, she mounts the table and begins to sing]

    C'mon babe
    Why don't we paint the town?
    And all that jazz
    I'm gonna rouge my knees
    And roll my stockings down
    And the totality of the aforementioned musical form

    Start the car
    I know a whoopee spot
    Where the gin is cold
    But the piano's hot
    It's just a noisy hall
    Where there's a nightly brawl
    And each improvised melody!

    Oh, you will see thy sheba
    Shimmy shake
    And large quantities of syncopated rhythms
    Oh, she's destined to shimmy till her garters break
    And excessive amounts of freeform tunes

    Show her where to park her girdle
    Oh, her mother's blood'd curdle
    If she'd hear
    Her baby's queer
    For the entirety of the tunes played by Louis Armstrong and similar performers!

    No, I'm no one's wife
    But, oh I love this life
    And the sum total of the music which originated in the southern United States in the late 19th/early 20th century!

    [Germaine sits back down]

    Tom Paulin: Well, of course, pen would never say that to Blob, even in reverse.

    Mark Lawson: Quite.
    Jason: (mouth hangs open speechlessly watching Germaine's performance)

    Gary's Nan: What is it, dear?
    vi) Two Bakers
    not Colin and Tom, but rather the application of Tuj's preparation H
    Pass Damn! Bernard Chumley: Well, of course I played Holmes once, you know. After a fashion. Basil Rathbone was ill and I stood in for him in a long shot. Kitty has one of those videos of it, she's very fond of showing people that sequence ...

    I didn't kill her, you know.
    vii) 101 tasteless uses for a Black & Decker workmate
    the remnants of E bolted onto J
    FUNCTION THE FOURTH: Interrogation/Torture device. Need I say more? Marjorie Dawes: Hands up who can tell me what the dieter's best friend is. Anyone? No? It's tastelessness. T-A-I-S-T-L-I-S-N-I-S, tastelessness. If something is tasteless, you don't want to eat very much of it. Ryvita, for example. That tastes of cardboard. Not like choklit. Oooh, I love a bit of choklit.
    viii) Straight Bollocks
    the dangly bits left over from I attached to L
    Erect ... Bollards Emily Howard: No, I don't have any of those. You see, I'm a lady!
    ix) A fly on the wall of the Let Me Chekov my Oats interface asks stupid questions
    the remains of C buzz into M
    [Graziela, Boleti et al sit in the charred ruins of their house. A fly buzzes overhead.]

    Fly: 'Ere, what happened to the fields?

    Graziela: Burnt. Burnt to ashes, each last one, alas. And brave Prince Charming perished attempting to spread porridge on the fields.

    Fly: And the fire caught the village too?

    Boleti: It did, indeed. And yet we are mysteriously unharmed despite being caught in the conflagration.

    Fly: That was going to be my next question. Is it a metaphor?

    [Bert enters, now utterly shoeless]

    Bert: I assume so. My pursuit by the bear indicated my flight from my own destiny, so the burning fields must be the destruction of all our hopes and dreams, and the talking fly -- wait a second, what does the talking fly represent?

    Fly: Erm, Jeff Goldblum's willingness to do the film?

    [Exit fly, pursued by a metaphor]
    Lou: I want those oats.

    Andy: These ones? But you don't like these ones. You said they had a texture like sandpaper.

    Lou: Yeah, I know. I want those ones.
    x) Vanilla MC
    furcation N continues on its merry way
    Marble Arch, if only to avoid ending up knee-deep in strick. Ray McCooney: Well, maybe I'm in strick and maybe I'm not, aye ... (plays panpipes)
    xi) Gallifrey Crescent
    a new furcation, splitting off from x)
    In honour of the new series, straddles to other programmes written by Russell T Davies or starring Christopher Eccleston are wild (thus making The Second Coming doubly wild, which could make for interesting paratheological play).
    Marb Station, perhaps not the most logical of places to preserve civilisation for the rest of eternity but never mind.
    Myfannwy: Oh look, Daffyd, there's a Doctor Who convention in the village hall this weekend ...
    xii) Oh Yes It Is A Cartier Bracelet! (only £1999.99+P&P)
    O, furcation O!
    Dragon: Well, thank Mark Lawson's Bears 'R' Us for that.

    Prince Charming: Prepare to die, Dragon, as I draw my Wilkinson Sword!

    Mrs Dragon: Not a pork sword?

    Prince Charming: This is all getting very inter-furcational.

    Mrs Dragon: Oh no, I can't believe it's not butter!

    Prince Charming: Oh yes, it is available at this low low price for one week only at your local Tesco.

    Dragon: Shut up, you two. You can't slay me with a razor, however well manufactured, you silly prince! I'll burn you alive with my fiery breath!

    Mrs Dragon: That's very unhealthy, dear; you should let me use my George Foreman Lean Mean Grilling Machine on him. Though, you know, love, you could do with a shave ...

    Dragon: (strokes his chin) I suppose you're right. There's enough Whiskas here to feed an army of even the choosiest cats. Tell you what, prince boy, you give me a shave and I'll promise to lay off pillaging the kingdom for at least a decade. There's plenty of wild sheep and goats in the Eastern Mountains I could eat.

    Prince Charming: But that's a ridiculous plan! What will everyone back at the castle think when I tell them?

    Mrs Dragon: Oh, Prince Charming, ridicule is nothing --

    [Curtain comes down as fast as possible to avert impending musical number]
    Dennis Waterman: Pantomime?

    Jeremy Rent: Yes, Dennis, pantomime.

    Dennis Waterman: Not telly then?

    Jeremy Rent: No.

    Dennis Waterman: Are they going to have a theme toon for the pantomime? Is that why they want me? Write the theme toon, sing the theme toon ...
    xiii) Sound charaded any good films lately?
    the previous P wedded to the non-theatrical elements of G
    [Martha] Is your sound charade To Kill a (Tequila) Mockingbird? Or something else to do with spirits?
    [Tuj] I was disappointed by Reloaded, to the extent that I haven't even bothered to see Revolutions, though I'm sure I'll catch it eventually. (Your embedded sound charade is Ben Hur, I take it?) Tell you what, though, I'm looking forward to seeing this film (four words) when it comes out in a few weeks:
    Minotaur: Hi Medusa! You're looking stunning, at least as far as I can tell from my mirror.
    Medusa: Thanks! You're looking fairly horny yourself. But if I'm looking good, it's probably because I've just been to see Polyphemus.
    Minotaur: Oh, yes, he's set himself up in business as a hairdresser since that unfortunate business with Odysseus, hasn't he?
    Medusa: He's remarkably good at it considering his blindness, but of course that suits me. Anyway, my hair had been floppy and lifeless, and it turned out to be because most of the snakes had snuffed it. But he chopped them all off and the remaining ones look much healthier.
    Minotaur: So you're saying you've been ...?
    April: Mental block? Extra strong mint!

    Neville: Er, I don't think extra strong mints can help with sound charades ...
    xiv) Jet Set Willy
    I'll try to bring this furcation back in one piece, Q
    The Banyan Tree Daffyd: Jet Set Willy? What's that supposed to mean, eh? We don't want your sort around here! Everyone knows I am the only gay in Llandewi Brefi.
    xv) Small Hypearthquakes
    previous furcation R, now with added recap
    POPE NOT QUALIFIED OR CELIBATE SINCE
    EXCEPT
    URSINE , SAYS
    ACCORDING
    SURGEON , CLAIMS ROYAL
    VATICAN
    NOR ALIEN
    DENTIST
    CATHOLIC - ALLEGATION FROM CARDINALS
    GIBSON
    VERIFIED WITH
    - DISAPPOINTED
    DENIED BY BEAR
    APOLOGETIC
    EVENTUALLY ALTHOUGH
    - RELIEVED
    Sebastian: The Pope seems to be taking most of the heat from the papers today, Prime Minister! That must be a relief, they're so awful to you normally. I think you're wonderful, though, Prime Minister. The best Prime Minister ever!
    Many thanks to everyone who's played up to now, but especially matt, whose idea to deal with the theatrical superabundance I have shamelessly stolen.
    Anyone perplexed by furcation xi), just play Covent Garden or Perivale.
    Wow! Many thanks for breathing some new life into the game. Having brought the amount of theatrical stuff down to a level I can actually cope with, I may consider re-entering the fray...

    It's also just become clear how difficult Small Hypearthquakes is to finish...

    Brendan] Quite excellently done! Furcations ix) and xi) I like particularly! May the game flourish once more!
    It looks like I've not got much on over the Easter Weekend, so maybe I'll concoct an entry.
    But then maybe I went walking instead :)
    Could someone explain the HTML of this game to a humble brain such as I?
    [ZK] It's beyond anything I would have the time to produce, but if you want to see how it works: right click on the page, select 'view source' and then play around with what that gives you.
    [ZK] The main thing is the use of tables, which unfortunately is the one thing Dr Qu+xum's excellent HTML reference doesn't cover, despite its abundant use of them. I wrote a Perl script to generate the empty table, and then filled it in with the moves, but then I'm sad like that. Quite happy to provide you with a bespoke empty table if you like. (Can you tell I'm looking for work avoidance excuses?)

    Very quick introduction: <table> starts a table, <tr> starts a row of a table and <td> starts an individual cell. As with most other tags inserting a slash in the appropriate place closes them off again. So a basic 2 row, 3 column table would be generated by:
    <table>
    <tr>
    <td>Cell 1</td><td>Cell 2</td><td>Cell 3</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
    <td>Cell 4</td><td>Cell 5</td><td>Cell 6</td>
    </tr>
    </table>
    which produces:
    Cell 1Cell 2Cell 3
    Cell 4Cell 5Cell 6

    Slightly more advanced stuff: The <table> tag can include attributes like border, cellpadding and so on, which produce various different effects; these are the same sort of things as color=red in a font tag. Also of note are the colspan and rowspan attributes which can be applied to the td tag -- eg <td colspan=2> would make the cell it applied to double size. You can specify a bgcolor, one of the mainstays of this game, and the width attribute which says how much of the table each column should take up -- I think percentages are best from the point of view of cross-browser compatibility. And finally, this is the HTMLHelp.com entry on tables where they probably explain everything much better than I can.
    oooooooooooooooooooh :) *makes note to go and look and play about*
    Ooh ooh! I get the sound charade! *feels slightly clever*
    I think IMJ has the best way! For example, in my most recent (only) move, I merely did the view source, copied someone else's table and re-painted it on a trial and error basis...
    Do we assume you have move? *feels excited*
    *keeping the game alive*
    anyone...?
    My fault, got excited and put ZK off... Sorry!
    I'd like to see everything reconverge in one glorious cry of MC, but it doesn't seem terribly likely at the moment.
    Ah. Sorry about that. My summer's going to be somewhat busier than anticipated and I haven't got the hang of this one yet, so it may not be me this time after all *sobs*
    [ZK] A little trip here will show you some of the terrible things that can happen when people get carried away with furcations. I still wake up screaming some nights.
    It still worries me how much I disliked that game, and why I never participated... as well as the cringeworthiness of how I used to communicate in those days. A fine game, ZK, you ignore Blob, those are positive aspects!
    I got splashed in the wood. Then I sat on a squrrel. It was red,purple,orange and green. Wake up you piece of blob. tim is a piece of the sheep game.
    1 Well, Brendan's attempt to unify so many massive games at once just led to a build-up of pressure in the Thalian ducts, leading to an explosion of film & crescent styles to contend with. Hence the wholesale takeover of the commentary by Characters from Under Milk Wood

    Theatrical Celebrity Commentary
    Continuing the timely revival of game 1 First Voice: To begin at the beginning. It is summer, black moonless night as the dim, dark villagers scuttle in their coal-dark hovels this June 26th, the blue lilting lapping sea plashes across the tied-up trawlers, hauling the souls of four-fifty men each night from dark to dusk. The village between the wooded hill and the wine-dark sea settles into its nightly routine, bothered by unquiet thoughts of games beyond their ken
    2
    • Meediam Syze: [Aside] Tis Graziela! I remember that name from when I was but a babe in arms! It was prophesied a witch of that name would help me in my hour of greatest need!
    • Boleti: Now, Majesty, tis time to fulfil the age-old prophecy!
    • King Syze: Never! The centuries-old tale that I would some day make the ultimate sacrifice? It's absolute balderdash! Why, I'm a Liberal Unionist! Other people make sacrifices for us! It is the way of the world
    • Graziela: There was an age-old prophecy in my land, Highness, but that wasn't it. All the citizens knew it. Because I enchanted it into their minds
    • Meediam: I know a prophecy too...
    • Graziela: It went like this...

    All four stand in a line. During the song they weave amongst each other and swap places continually

    Graziela:
    As I recall,
    When I was small
    A sorceress
    With velvet dress
    Came to my side
    And prophesied
    In twenty years
    She'd lift a curse
    That 'til then spanned
    The breadth of this land
    The legacy
    Of the king-to-be...
    King Syze.......
    King Syze:
    'Twas long ago
    My little bro
    E. Conomy Syze
    The Worldy-Wise
    Told me the tale
    Of how I'd fail
    To lead this state
    From the cruel hand of fate.
    His reason was:
    "'Twill be because
    My good deeds lack
    The ultimate sac-
    Rifice"...
    Meediam:
    The magic spell
    I know it well
    It's haunted me
    Since I was three
    I fear the King
    Is weakening
    And less than bold
    For it was foretold
    That we'd be saved
    By someone depraved,
    A force for good
    But a woman he would
    Despise...
    Boleti:
    Throughout my days
    The verbal phrase
    "A marriage will save
    The Kingdom" gave
    Me cause for fear
    As courtier
    To my sovran head
    Who'd ne'er be wed.
    'Twould clear the air
    In the gusts of their
    Confetti shower
    Or else we'd say our
    Goodbyes...
    • [All, to each other]: I never heard that! Goodness me! Well here's a how-de-do!
      We've all heard something different - but I quite agree with you!
      A marriage must take place, it's plain, but who shall take the bride?
      We're doomed to lives of ruin if the omen's misapplied!
      [Repeat twice, getting faster each time]
    • Azulejo: So that's clear then, we must have a wedding post-haste. Any ideas who?
    • King Syze: There's wisdom yet in the Oracle, if we can but translate its meaning...
    • Graziela: Simple! We must all be true to ourselves, follow our own destiny and understand one another's feelings!
    • Boleti: Great wisdom indeed. Were you visited by a spirit guide from the heavens for such a reading?
    • Graziela: No, I just read my horoscope this morning.

      [Chorus starts drifting on aimlessly]

    • King Syze: But - does this mean I have to marry a witch to gain freedom for my country?
    • Meediam: Yes, and I'm going to have to marry - the Lutenist!
    • Lutenist: Hurrah! And I've composed a song all ready for the occasion! It goes like this...

      The marriage bed awaits, the curse is dead [Chorus: "Curse is dead!"]
      The brides and grooms are waiting to be wed [Chorus: "To be wed!"]
      The witch and king, his girl, the lutenist [Chorus: "Lutenist!"; lutenist mugs at audience]
      Can't hardly wait - come on, let's just get kissed! [Chorus: "Yikes!"; mumble amongst each other]

      With Azulejo and his man, Boleti
      To orchestrate the showers of confetti
      Massiva Syze to usher - bride or groom? -
      We've saved this land from everlasting doom!

    • Chorus: "We've saved this land from everlasting doom!
      At least, so we must assume
      Now the King doth dare presume
      To believe the viper whom
      We saw atop a broom
      In black and red costume
      Amid the midnight gloom!
      Hurrah!!!!!

    Gilbert & Sullivan
    as requested, a spin-off from Euripdes Organ Morgan: Praise the Lord, we are a musical nation! Oh Bach fach, Bach every time for me, and then Palestrina, unless Polly Garter's singing at the Sailors Arms, which are always open for young Polly...
    3 Michael Jackson when he got busted in his hotel room. (But hey, Busted were pretty embarrassed too)

    How do you worry a flock of sheep?

    Tasteless Spanklines
    unifying 3&7 Mrs Organ Morgan: You haven't heard a word I've been saying, have you Morgan? It's organ organ all the time with you... [bursts into a midden of salty howling, spearing a doorstep of lamb and mint sauce and burying it whole]
    4
    • Meediam: O spiteful witch, breath of the infernal Erinyes,
      Know you not that aegis-bearing Zeus sees all
      And metes out ruthless punishment by means of...
    • Graziela: The Erinyes? Yes I know, young mistress Meediam
      I have the promethean gift, the gift of far sight
      Which tells me of the Delphic prophecy, received
      Not long ago - the cantanonian text
      Baffles all sons and daughters of this castle
      Is this not so?
    • King Syze: You speak the truth at least
      Your pact with the shades of Hades serves you well
      Now Standates, seize the malevolent aged crone!
    • Standates: No! Let them see the mysterious Oracle first
    • Lutenist: We must look for the bare necessities
      Concealed within this text. Then rest at ease
      (And thank our secret agent Standates)
    • Graziela: The Oracle envisions what's to come.
      The King, most powerful in all the land
      Must leave this place and steam away from here
      To rid the land of the curse that blights it now
      And Meediam must rule it in his stead
      To pacify the wrath of great Apollo.

      Enter Apollo in a gigantic flaming chariot

      Apollo: Yes that's right. Aaaargh!! Get me out of here! Nyuuuurghh!!! Ow ow owww! [rides offstage]

    • King Syze: O great and mighty Apollo, sun-maker, tamer of... oh he's gone
    • Meediam: But I must be married before I can rule as Queen
      For salic law still pervades this city-state
    • Lutenist: That would be easily rectified
    • Graziela: And I
      Shall marry, oh let's say, Azulejo

      [Enter Chorus, banging tambourines and waving flowers]

    Euripedes
    Continuing the Euripedean section of 2 Gossamer Beynon: At last, my love! What else to do, standing in the wine-dark slaughterhouse, but dream of the cloudy future, waist-deep in entrails and chicken hearts? Long, long time to long for loose-limbed lovers, wasting away in the prison cage of Llaregyb [sighs like an aged cat]
    5 - Yaaargh! Is it the pig?

    Reverse Squeak Piggy Squeak!
    New furcation Mr Waldo: In Pembroke City ere I was big/ My work was poor and meek/ I had to climb on top of a pig/ And force it then to squeak/ And when it squoke the other boys/ All tried to guess if I/ Would guess who, by the horrible noise,/ Had stuck his thumb in its eye
    6
    • King Syze: Whoss your game! Get that bastard bear out my bastard castle!
    • Meediam: Gerrit yersen then! I'm pregnant aren't I! I could eat a scabby orse!
    • Peugeot: Bloody ell grandad, it's rippin up yer paper!
    • King Syze: Bloody paper. Have to go down and get some more. From Sidcup
    • Graziela: It's the fly what's drivin it mad. Open a window someone
    • King Syze: Whatchoo doin ere anyway ye daft bint? Got one girl up the duff, now you're goin to tell me you're married or summin?
    • Graziela: Yer! Thassit! I'm married to, um, Peugeot!
    • Peugeot: Yeah!

      Pause

    • King Syze: You must be pissed [reads paper]

    Pinter
    Pinterian section of 2 Sinbad Sailors: Here's to me, Sinbad, resting his sea-weary legs in the Sailors Arms, the clock stopped at half-past eleven, the cock stopped from crowing by Gossamer Beynon. Thinking of flies attacking bears attacking people down in England where these things happen as all the fishermen say. Time I had a jar
    7 This is a concept of breathtaking simplicity, so what happens is this. Imagine you're in a car travelling at the speed of light, and out of the window you see a footballer breaking the offside rule because the Higgs Boson is between him and the opposing team's goal. Well, obviously you'd slam on the brakes, which in this case can be referred to as Tune 1(a), the car representing Song 1 in its entirety. Then, and this is the clever bit...

    Describing One Song to the Tune of Another
    New furcation Captain Cat: My blind eyes look out on a scene of confusion and fright, but never such confusion and fright as the floods that swamped the decks of the SS Kidwelly, the roaring seas that robbed and dismasted me, stole away young Jonah Jarvis, Curly Bevan, and Alfred Pomeroy Jones...
    8
    • King Syze: Heavens above, it's a huge, brown, grizzly bear!
    • Meediam: Are you absoutely sure it's a grizzly bear, father? Could it not be a small, white polar bear for instance, which has been coloured brown with the judicious addition of some cocoa powder to its extraneous fur?
    • Peugeot: No, no, logic dictates the bear must in fact be an escapee from the local theatre. in which they are in increasing demand given the number of recent cameo roles involving the ursine species
    • Graziela: Are you all crazy? Save yourselves! Get on a chair! [jumps on chair; immediately jumps off as the invisible Emperor is sitting there half-naked] Ooof, sorry!
    • Barry: Logic dictates quite categorically that there can be no bear under the cocktail cabinet, and any bears you may perceive are the product of a fevered and irrepressible imagination
    • King Syze: Grooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrr!
    • Graziela: Oh your Majesty! You've turned into a bear as well!
    • Meediam: But how can you tell it's him? My father was always a gentle, good-looking kind of a gent.
    • Barry: And besides, he's grrrrroooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrr!!!!
    • Peugeot: Grooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrr! [Cast start sinisterly pawing at Graziela and Meediam emitting guttural noises]
    • Meediam: Admittedly, there do seem to be a number more bears in the room than when we started. However, I expect we can rationalise the situation quite meaningfully, and in fact they're much better looking than any of my old boyfriends
    • Graziela: Oh Meediam! What if we're the only two people left in the world who aren't bears?

      [Re-enter Countertenor, who isn't a bear]

    • Countertenor: Roar! Doch, eine böse Witz! Ich bin einen Mann namens Fritz!
    • Graziela: Save us Fritz! Marry us both so we can save the human species from this intriguing metaphor!
    • Countertenor: Warum folgst du mir wie einen Bär? Ich bin ein wirkliche Herr!
    • Meediam: Good! Now save us from this sloth of bears and let's get out of here! [Exeunt]

    Ionesco
    Bastard offspring of Pinter Mary Ann Sailors: Call me Dolores like they do in the stories. Seems everyone gets married but me, I care for sailors up in my room but I can't pin em down like old Rosie Probert. 34 Duck Lane in the spring of my old age. Come on up boys, I'm dead
    9 Row, paddle, scull your boat
    Gently down the stream
    Merrily happily jovially laughingly
    Life is but a dream

    I dreamt a hallucination of two fine mousies,
    Tall they were and true
    Both of them lived in one of thine stately housies
    In jackets of blue and braided trousers
    And glad as gleeful as ever a rodent is
    Though there were only a couple, a duo,
    Although merely a brace existed

    Cut water, pull, run rapids in thy craft
    Softly along the brook
    Gaily amusingly blithely mirthfully
    Being alive is nothing more than a reverie

    Nevertheless, a single mus musculus said, "Let's leave these shores
    Shall you and I not sail away dear please,
    This shoe will do, if us lads hold the oars
    And propel it from here with our delicate paws
    Me and thee will drive it across the mahogany floors
    Till the Stilton cheese, the fromage, is ours
    Until the dairy product of that region is found

    Punt, stir the waters, attack the waves with the vessel belonging to yourself,
    Insouciantly through the thin river,
    Cheerfully, unconcernedly, buoyantly, effervescently
    Living be such a phantasm!

    Those creatures drove and pulled without a care
    Unfortunately didn't look where themselves were going
    Well, the listener may ask how he or she would fare
    Travelling backwards carelessly
    When aforementioned hearer came to the top of the stair
    Hey, over the staircase the Muridae went
    Round the peak of the riser the proverbially quiet fauna fell

    Bing, bang, bongle, bump
    Heavily to the bottom of the flight,
    Bingledy, bangledy, bongledy, bumpety
    To the foot of the apples and pears

    The tiny mammals picked up their bodies from the awful fall
    And dusted off the knees belonging to their own persons
    Then progressing out of the hall by the kitchen wall
    The rodentiae schoonered their skiff and called, loudly enough to be heard by humans,
    At least if the Hesperomys hadn't been quite so small
    "In what place is the Cambridgeshire curdled milk fat, the acidified cow extract?
    Whereabouts can be the erstwhile Huntingdonshire specialist produce?"

    Heave, drag, draw the canoe belonging to the second person grammatically
    On the canteen ground
    Wriggly wruggly into the tunnely
    Under the larder door

    The traditional laboratory experiments searched the dishes and tried to spot em,
    "Find me a nice bit if you'd be so kind!"
    Twas slippery in the pantry but the house-pests had forgotten
    The hole-dwellers tripped and slipped in something rotten
    And covered their entire beings from head to toe
    With stinking East Anglian acerbated lactic curd, fermented milk containing red surface bacteria,
    Revolting rennet-assisted congealed glycerol ester of the type which rhymes with Hilton

    Close, shut, stop one's nose,
    what a dreadful pong!
    Pickily, pockily, pickily, pockily
    Isn't it a foul song!

    Just a Minim meets Bagpuss
    Portions of 5 meet an all-new nostalgic feline Ocky Milkman: Pouring out the gallons of curdified milk into the river Stream, think of the mice chewing poor old Mrs Cherry Owen's sheets to ribbons, where's that pink tortoiseshell cat got to, saw it lapping up the guts outside Butcher Beynon's one evening, never seen him since
    10
      Enter Azulejo and Boleti

    • Azulejo: So that's the plan then, we convince Francoise she killed the king when she stuck him in the cupboard, and then blackmail her to tell us where the loot is
    • Boleti: And maybe other things too, this is the Permissive Society we're living in you know...
    • Azulejo: Yes, that's true. Watch out, she's coming! Come on, let's hide!

      Enter Francoise and Lutenist

    • Lutenist: So that was how I learned I was the true king, which is why I've got this huge crown, big rob, massive sceptre and everything
    • Francoise: It's certainly a huge one, 15 inches long and brightly coloured...
    • Lutenist: Yes and the sceptre's pretty good too.
    • Francoise: When shall we be married, Maj?
    • Lutenist: *heh heh, think I'm in here* Right about now. I'm king you know, I can do what I like

      Enter Graziela, Meediam and Prince Minuscule

    • Prince Minuscule: Hey! I'm king!
    • Lutenist: I'm king!
    • Prince Minuscule: I'm king!
    • Lutenist: I'm king!
    • Prince Minuscule: I'm king!
    • Lutenist: I'm king!

      Enter tasteless butler

    • Ozzy Osbourne: No, he's f___in king! [points waywardly]
    • Graziela: Well that's very interesting because I'm here to kill the king! [raises arms, all scream]
    • Prince Minuscule: He's king!
    • Lutenist: He's king!
    • Prince Minuscule: He's king!
    • Lutenist: He's king!
    • Prince Minuscule: He's king!
    • Azulejo & Boleti: [coming out] No! The king is dead!
    • Francoise: Long live the king!
    • Graziela: Aha! [raises arms again]
    • Ozzy Osbourne: Whadda we need a f___in king for? Can't we just f___in you know, be f___in happy about things and f___ yeah?
    • Prince Minuscule: Yeah! Let's have a right-on socialist democracy where everyone can be free to love each other and all that shit
    • Graziela: And let's all get married! [puts arms down; all cheer]

    Orton
    Ortonesque continuation of 2 Rosie Probert: What man did you see / Tom Cat, Tom Cat / When you looked at the King / Long long ago? / What manner was he / Tom Cat, Tom Cat / Was he able to sing / With lute and bow? / Was he small as a pea / Tom Cat, Tom Cat / Did he marry a queen / Or don't you know?
    11 And the next word is *DING* - Bollocks. Three definitions, only one of which is correct...

    [1.] Come with me if you will to the 17th century, when the cotton industry was in its infancy. Whole communities grew up and died depending on the yearly cotton crop, and superstitions were rife thoughout those villages. Often nothing could be gleaned from a whole field but a few useless strands, and the culprit was universally claimed to be the boll weevil - in fact the strands he left behind were taken to be his hairs. Hence the expression "we haven't got any cotton mate, all we've got is a load of boll-locks."

    [2.] Curiously, an American term adopted by English soldiers during the Revolution. They were given the task of imposing curfew within their captured territories to prevent the formation of militias, and were obliged to clear the parks, lock up the theatres and close the pubs. They did this last of all, as the villagers' billards matches, darts tournaments etc. could go on for ever, and they always got violent if they were broken up already. Which gave rise to the expression - "close all the theatres etc. but never mind the bar-larks"

    [3.] Early in the 20th century, Hilaire Belloc teamed up with Jackson Pollock to paint pictures of bullocks, and one or two molluscs. Along with little-known Austrian painter Paul Ochs, they played cricket with wooden balls, known as Bowl-Oaks, which led to the extinction of the Giant Auk - the last were called Ball-Auks. When these events were first reported, someone said "Oi! What a load of bollocks!" and the name stuck, mainly because there isn't a punchline

    Call My Bluff
    New furcation meets game 8 Jack Black: Ach y fi! Ach y fi! Oh I dream of picking the boll weevils out the cotton rows with Myfanwy Price at my side, then chasing her through the gooseberried double bed of the wood, dragging mw from the spitpenny hops of my nightmares...
    12
      Enter Francoise and Lutenist

    • Francoise: Good morning my old lutenist
    • Lutenist: Good morning my dear. What a fine night we spent together. It reminded me of my darling wife before she died of consumption leaving behind two starving children whom I sent immediately to an orphanage
    • Francoise: You kind, tender soul. You must have many, many songs to sing of that romantic affair
    • Lutenist: Many, many songs, and many nights of memory. You haven't seen my lute around have you? It was ever my vocation to make my fortune by music
    • Francoise: You're dead set on not being King any more then?
    • Lutenist: Absolutely, I'd rather throw myself from the topmost tower in the city than renege on my own destiny! Ha ha!

      Enter Graziela, Boleti, Azulejo, Meediam

    • Boleti: Father!
    • Azulejo: Half-brother!
    • Graziela: Son!
    • Lutenist: Eh?
    • Meediam: My tasteless butler has just revealed documents proving without the slightest shadow of a doubt that you are in fact the rightful heir to the throne!
    • Lutenist: What! But what about Prince Minuscule?
    • Graziela: Oh, he was arrested for fraud during the night and had a near-fatal attack of haemmorhoids so we won't be seeing him again in a hurry.
    • Lutenist: You mean I've been living a lie all this time? But - take away a man's lies and you take his happiness! Oh lackaday! I feel a mournful dirge coming on...
    • Boleti: Well that's a shame, we just smashed your lute and burned the pieces for a laugh, and to see how things would work out without it...
    • Lutenist: Oh the darkness of man's heart! Ah the irony of life! Give me some light! Away! [Exits]
    • Graziela: Don't you just love being in control?
    • Meediam: It's a great feeling, but it does leave us without a king, you know
    • Boleti: Oh, the lutenist'll do it, soon as he's cheered up a bit. I'm sure he'll see the funny side [All laugh]
    • Meediam: And I'm sure he'll be ready to bless my marriage to young Boleti - and why don't we make it a double celebration? [Offstage: "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!"]
    • Graziela & Azulejo: Hurrah!

    Ibsen
    Sprung like a wild duck from the loins of Orton Bessie Bighead: I am a footnote to the great irony of life, born in a pauper's grave, milking the cows with brown, oaky hands, burning old muxical instruments to keep myself from death each night, waiting, waiting for the Reverend Eli Jenkins to notice me one night at the back of the pew, where I have a blanket and Bible out ready for him
    13 [Brendan] 3 words out of 4 right, very good! (This was much easier when I set it last year - you just need a synonym for "children" really). Is yours "Shaun of the Dead"?
    [Tuj] I thought Reloaded sucked, but then I wasn't too impressed with the first film either. Revolutions is a complete waste of time all round. If you want a good war film, go see Troy while it's still here. (And I know matt's likely to play next...)

      TV, 4 words
      [Purser's office, on a slow boat to China]
    • Purser: Yes sir, can I help you?
    • Passenger: Well I hope so, I simply have to know. Why does a ship carry cargo but a car doesn't carry shipgo? How can you get up the creek without a paddle if you need a paddle to get there?
    • Did Schrodinger's cat have 18 half lives? Why doesn't Tarzan have a beard? Is there another word for Thesaurus?
    • Purser: Anything specifically about the voyage, sir?
    • Passenger: Yeah! I just shot an Albatross, does that make it an Albat Memorial? Do fish get thirsty? What possessed you to show Titanic as the movie last night? If a seagull swims over the bay, is it a bagel? Why is there a massive hole in the bottom of the ship?
    • Purser: I'll have to look into it
    • Passenger: If a synchronised swimmer drowns, do the rest of them have to drown? Can a cross-eyed dyslexic read? What if there were no hypothetical situations?
    • Purser: Wait - I do believe we're coming up to your stop. Yes, there it is, right out of the window. Hooray. Leave me alone. Get lost
    • Passenger: What, you mean, this is... ?

    Stupid questions, but sound charades
    Continuation of 13 and 9 Mrs Pugh: What's that you're reading Mr Pugh? Are you reading at table again? Is that not what a pig does? Are you a pig Mr Pugh? Did you know Willy Nilly brought you a parcel this morning? Was it a trough? Will you go to Heaven if you read at table Mr Pugh?
    14
    • Kirsty Wark: Lady Thick, I assume you were disappointed with the sound charade?
    • Lady Thick: Merciful hobgoblins on me, Mistress Wark, I was utterly laminated by the intermediary quintessence of it!
    • Poor John Lovelie: Notwithstanding the supreme extravagance with which the author penned the divertissement, 'twas edification itself to scrutinise the confabulation between passenger and purser
    • Kirsty Wark: So, a seal of approval from this side, but let's go over to our senior dramatic critic...
    • King Syze: Odds my life egad! Grotesque immorality, a convocation of dissemblers, rogues and perjurers, destitute of propriety, filled with calumny, I mean dash it!
    • Poor John Lovelie: A plague upon your sentiments, Majesty, I submit this unwarranted attack is merely on account of this contributor's aspirations to marry your daughter Meediam!
    • King Syze: Odds fish! Your intentions towards my daughter are as your efforts to play Mornington Crescent - spirited, cunning, and wholly without success!
    • Lady Thick: Cor lummee, this is a tagliatelli dimetrodon!
    • Kirsty Wark: And now a look at tomorrow's front pages, The Sun has "Princess Meediam: I will never marry John Lovelie as long as I live", the Mirror leads with "John Lovelie is the worst person I've ever set eyes on - Meediam" and the Star's gone for "I wouldn't marry John Lovelie if he were the last man on earth"
    • Poor John Lovelie: Oh buggeration!
    • King Syze: Zounds!

    Sheridanian Review of Sound Charades
    Dash of 2, squeeze of 5 Mr Pugh: I will go to Heaven Mrs Pugh, as I'm reading the Lives of the Great Saints. I will shortly be adding my name to the book, as I intend to slaughter Tom Paulin with a meat cleaver. I would do the same to Mark Lawson but he's cameoing in some other game at present. And pigs can't read, my dear
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