Yes, brilliant programme, in a completely crap sort of a way. None of the jokes were funny in the entire 52-year run of the programme, but it just held together so well like a lot of naff 70's shows did. Bill Steel, former Tyne Tees announcer provided the phrase you quoted there...
Really! Good grief, now that IS trivia! I thought I was the only one who knew about it.
Here's something I bet you don't want to know. They had a season of screenings/discussions on old comedy shows at the National Film Theatre recently, and I went along the night Barry Cryer was there. I thought I'd be the only one geeky enough to mention JOKERS WILD, but when the Q&A bit started, someone else asked, "was it actually rehearsed?" Bazza replied, "Is HAVE I GOT NEWS FOR YOU fixed!" When it was my turn, I began by saying, "I have a rather sad obsession with JOKERS WILD", and he cut in, saying, "you should get out more". Which got quite a big laugh. Then I went on to ask, "how did you pick some of the people on it, 'cos a lot of them weren't really joke-tellers at all - John Cleese, Diana Dors, Milo O'Shea, in fact Michael Aspel was in the one that was on Granada Plus at 7.30 this morning..." He replied, "You REALLY should get out more!" Which got a huge laugh - and the woman I love was sitting directly in front of me.
Life's like that.....
True about non-comedians being on it. I'm not sad enough to have seen the repeats, but I do remember watching the show as a kid. They used to have some kind of wild card round, where one of the contestants had to get as many laughs out of the audience as possible in one minute. The record holder, amazingly, was Jon Pertwee, who basically stood in front of the mike and made gibberish noises for the full 60 seconds. The audience was in hysterics.
*covers head in shame, with anorak*
er....I've actually got that one on tape, now that you mention it. Interesting to see (for people like me who only really know him from Dr Who and Worzel Gummidge) what Jonquil da Pert's stand-up act was like - in between making those ridiculous noises, he shouted at the audience for laughing, rather as Frankie Howerd did.
I still maintain, especially with American fools who've only just discovered Python (honestly! Perhaps they'll get into THE FAST SHOW come the year 2027), that the sight of Cleese on JOKERS WILD, sitting in the middle of the table, with Rolf Harris on his left and Norman Collier on his right, was more surreal than anything he's done before or since.