Britain's Most Loved and Best Comedy Double Act

The Morecambe & Wise Comic Book

Book Review from 2008



Cover

This small paperback book consists of a series of cartoons featuring Eric and Ern drawn by Terry Wakefield. There are several storylines with the initial one covering the book itself and how Eric and Ern can become cartoon characters.

Following that comes a series of corny quickies based on the ‘waiter I have a fly in my soup’ gag called Daffy Caffy. All the usual bad punch lines are here, all drawn well in typical cartoon book style.

Next is Old Ern’s Almanack with each month taking a page and displaying a cartoon to depict the rhyme, for example ‘June: Flaming June, a cooling breeze…. The flaming pollen makes you sneeze!’

Next up is Farewell My Falcon – staring Eric as Sheerluck Jones and Ernie as Doctor Wosit. After a few wasted pages in introductions we get a short mystery story with Sheerluck trying to find The Black Bird – which is a bird, that is black.

The story is riddled with one line word plays such as ‘Sheerluck followed a hunch…’ with a picture depicting Sheerluck chasing a hunchback… Sadly the ending is somewhat un PC by today’s standards, but typical of the humour in the late 70’s. The thin man (who is fat – because it’s his day off) finds the black bird himself… but suffice to say, it isn’t the feathered variety!

Moving on the next thing to get the cartoon treatment is nursery rhymes – called Nutsery Rhymes in the book. Each takes a familiar rhyme and changes something, accompanied by a cartoon. Little Bo Peep becomes Little Bo Pip – who has lost her ship… you get the idea.

Last we get Eric and Ernie’s Animal Encyclopaedia. Here we get a cartoon of each animal along with questions and comedy answers by the cartoon pair. An example of which is “Why has a camel got a hump? Answer: You’d have the hump if you had to go 7 days without water…”

And that’s it. A small quick read that isn’t really funny, but worth getting if you are a collector or fan.

On a side note, similar cartoons with script and drawings by the same people also appear in the Morecambe & Wise Special annuals and Eric and Ernie’s TV Fun Book.


© morecambeandwise.com 2008

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The Morecambe & Wise Joke Book
This small, soft cover book consists mainly of short sketch-like material as used by the boys during their curtain or play routines.