From Maurice Hardaker Sir: Poor Frank Johnson (Shared opinion, 2
August). As a 72-year-old Englishman, I was one of millions who found that Bob Hope's humour 'kept us smiling in the grim years of the war' — and after. And for Johnson to take an anti-American stance regarding humour is rather silly. It's either funny or it isn't. ITMA was entirely verbal during the grim years of the war, and it was funny then. (People would find the humour very strange now, however.) So were Round the Horne and Beyond Our Ken, after the war.
Perhaps Mr Johnson gets his laughs from watching British comedians falling down. But comparing the 'great British comedian Max Miller' with Bob Hope? A Miller joke (quite a short list): 'So I was crossing this stream on a narrow bridge and a lovely girl started from the other side. I didn't know whether to block her passage or toss myself off!' Funny? Witty?
Maurice Hardaker
France
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