The Goodies was the creation of Graeme Garden, Bill Oddie and Tim Brooke-Taylor. Having won a big audience for their children's show, Broaden Your Mind, they were let loose on a series with the simple premise that the trio were an agency offering to do "anything, anywhere, any time" - a premise they abandoned as soon as they could, leaving behind a tale of three very different men, all living in a giant office-cum-laboratory, usually either completely broke or amazingly rich, and always coming up with whacky schemes.Even today, it still makes me laugh.
At its best the programme had the wit and inventiveness of a golden-era Tom and Jerry or Warner Brothers cartoon, lightly sprinkled with satire and the odd song.
Visual invention was a particular hallmark, with the team making great use of chroma-key and models for effects like Kitten Kong and the famous sequence in The Movies where attempts by each of the three to make a film (a silent, a western and a Roman epic) at the same time results in a picture that sees them flow rapidly from movie to movie, breaking through frames, busting down genres and bringing in everyone from Charlie Chaplin to Julie Andrews.
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MAYBE these blonde stars traded fame and fortune for a large slice of their brains?
Paris Hilton, for instance, might fancy finding a bff in Blighty, but she should work out that Gordon Ramsey is not the Prime Minister first.
But the hotel heiress isn’t the only famous fair-header to uphold the blonde stereotype.
Check out our top 50 dumb blonde quotes below:
1) Paris Hilton talking to press about the US chain store: "Wal-Mart... do they like make walls there?"
2) Jessica Simpson on NewleyWeds: "Is this chicken, what I have, or is this fish? I know it's tuna, but it says 'Chicken by the Sea.' "
3) Alicia Silverstone on her role in Clueless: "I think that the film was very deep. I think it was deep in the way that it was very light. I think lightness has to come from a very deep place if it's true lightness."
4) Chantelle Houghton when Big Brother said she had changed since becoming a celebrity: "I've changed? What do you mean... I've changed my clothes?"
5) Jodie Marsh in a recent interview: "Eskimos are uncivilised because they don't have any shops."
6) Paris Hilton on her technique on the red carpet: "I don't really think, I just walk."
7) Jessica Simpson on her first day at high school: "A teacher asked us if anybody knew the names of the continents. I was sooo excited. I was like, Damn it! It's my first day of 7th grade, I'm in junior high and I know this answer. So I raised my hand, I was the first one, and I said A-E-I-O-U!"
8) Goldie Hawn on her favourite types of films: "Comedy is funny".
9) Sam Fox on fitness clothes: "I’ve got 10 pairs of training shoes - one for every day of the week."
10) Britney Spears on her taste in clothes: "So many people have asked me how I could possibly be a role model and dress like a tramp and get implants... all I have to say is that self-esteem is how you look at yourself and I feel good enough about myself so wear that kind of clothing... the breast implant issue has nothing to do with that..."
11) BB's Helen Adam’s on education: "The worst thing is when the press call me a dizzy blonde - I got a B in Drama, a D in English, I did a hairdressing course and a beauty certificate."
12) Lady Victoria Hervey on the homeless: "It's so bad being homeless in winter. They should go somewhere warm like the Caribbean where they can eat fresh fish all day."
13) Britney Spears on Japan: "I've never really wanted to go to Japan. Simply because I don't like eating fish. And I know that's very popular out there in Africa."
14) Jessica Simpson when offered buffalo wings: "Sorry I don't eat buffalo."
15) Paris Hilton on her fame: "There's nobody in the world like me. I think every decade has an iconic blonde, like Marilyn Monroe or Princess Diana and, right now, I’m that icon."
16) Chantelle Houghton on George Galloway: "He looks at us like we're stupid, scatty, uneducated girls. He's a right chauvinistic pig, whatever that means!"
17) Cameron Diaz on science: "I've been noticing gravity since I was very young."
18) Britney Spears on where she might start her theatre career: "I would rather start out somewhere small, like London or England.”
19) BB's Helen Adams on magic man Paul Daniels: "Yeah, you know Jack Daniels... he does all the magic stuff!"
20) Christina Alguilera on film festivals: "So where’s the Cannes film festival being held this year?"
21) Paris Hilton on her career choices: "First wanted to be a veterinarian. And then I realised you had to give them shots to put them to sleep, so I decided I'd just buy a bunch of animals and have them in my house instead."
22) Alicia Douvall on motherhood: "I think a 16-year-old with a nice, sexy figure will do really well as a model as long as she's managed well. That's why I'm happy for Georgia to have a boob job because it will give her a career."
23) Chantelle Houghton on hearing George Galloway was an MP: "Does that mean you work in that big room with the green seats?"
24) Britney on capital punishment: "I am for the death penalty. Who commits terrible acts must get a fitting punishment. That way he learns the lesson for the next time."
25) BB2's Helen Adams on pulses: "How much chicken is there in chick peas?"
26) Chanelle Hayes on her Posh spice obsession: "I like what she (Victoria Beckham) wears. That's what magazines are all about - there's always a picture of a celebrity and where to buy a replica of what they're wearing. It's not as if I'm doing anything weird."
27) Paris Hilton on her title: "I don't want to be known as the Hilton heiress, because I didn't do anything for that."
28) Tara Reid on her fellow blonde celeb: "I make Jessica Simpson look like a rock scientist."
29) Ivana Trump on literature: "Fiction writing is great. You can make up almost anything."
30) Christina Aguilera on herself: "I'm an ocean, because I'm really deep. If you search deep enough you can find rare exotic treasures."
31) Britney Spears on her first tour: "Where the hell is Australia anyway?"
32) Alicia Douvall on surgery: "I know it (plastic surgeries) will kill me. But I'd rather die trying to sort things out."
33) Jodie Marsh on cooking: "Is an egg a vegetable?"
34) Kimberly Stewart on Jennifer Aniston: "I like her cos she's like, homely. She must have something else going on cos it's not like she's gorgeous or anything."
35) Jessica Simpson on her mood at the VH1 '05 video awards: "Isn’t it weird I’m getting all emotionable."
36) Helen Adams on BB2 : "I probably sound Welsh on the telly."
37) Mariah Carey on the death of the King of Jordan: "I loved Jordan. He was one of the greatest athletes of our time."
38) Chantelle Houghton on different types of doctors: "What’s a gynaecologist?"
39) Pamela Anderson on her secret to success: "I don't think about anything too much . . . If I think too much, it kind of freaks me out!"
40) Ivana Trump on getting one over on her ex's new girlfriend: “Gorgeous hair is the best revenge.”
41) Brooke Shields on her campaign against smoking: "Smoking kills. If you're killed, you've lost a very important part of your life."
42) Heather Locklear on being proud of her heritage: "From an early age I was aware of what America meant, and how the Marines at Camp Pendleton were ready to defend us at a moment's notice. I also remember what fabulous bodies those troops had."
43) Jessica Simpson on her scantily clad videos: "I'm definitely shy, so it was definitely acting for me to drop a trench coat and be in a bikini and try to get my cousins out of trouble by using my body. That was definitely acting!"
44) Chantelle Houghton working out the shopping budget: "Eleventy-twelve pence? I don't get it. How much is that then?"
45) Britney on why she did a cover of I Love Rock and Roll: "I always loved Pat Benatar."
46) Emma Bunton on moobs: "I wish men had boobs because I like the feel of them. It's so funny - when I record I sing with a hand over each of them, maybe it's a comfort thing."
47) Cyndi Crawford on modelling: "In the studio, I do try to have a thought in my head, so that it's not like a blank stare."
48) The late Anna Nicole Smith on suicide bombers: "Doesn't that hurt?"
49) Jessica Simpson to the President when visiting the White House: "I love what you’ve done with the place!"
50) Mischa Barton on being blessed with looks: "Pretty people aren't as accepted as other people. It comes with all these stigmas."
Advert for brothel mistaken for classical Chinese poemAnd the illustration
A respected German scientific magazine has been embarrassed to discover it printed a Chinese-language advertisement for "jade-like girls" and "coquettish and enchanting housewives" across its front cover.
By Richard Spencer in Beijing
Last Updated: 7:49AM GMT 09 Dec 2008
The striking white-on-red text was intended to show off the Chinese focus of the official journal of the Max Planck Institute.
The editors, who thought they were printing a piece of classical Chinese poetry, said they ran it past "a German sinologist" to make sure.
In fact, the text appears to be a flier for a Hong Kong or Macau entertainment centre.
It says two new "directors" have been appointed to oversee a series of "matinees". They will personally lead "jade-like girls in the spring of youth, beauties from the north" - the north of China is a popular recruiting ground for Hong Kong and Macau prostitutes. It also has "housewives whose performances are coquettish and enchanting".
The magazine cover has circulated on Chinese blogs, causing amusement and a certain amount of schadenfreude.
Many English-speaking Chinese are keenly aware that poorly translated signs and restaurant menus here are a perpetual source of amusement for foreigners, with a number of popular online and published collections, such as www.engrish.com
Government-led attempts to spare the nation's blushes are matched with vengeful glee by tattooists who cash in on the current, David Beckham-led craze for Chinese characters by inscribing young backpackers' bodies with slogans such as "A fool and his money are easily parted" or crude sexual invitations.
On the other hand, Chinglish is hitting back due to attempts to use translation software to improve matters.
In one celebrated case, a rash of English-language signs featuring the prominent and inexplicable use of the F-word was discovered to be the fault of a piece of translation software that failed to distinguish meanings of the character for "to do", which carries the same sexual double entendre in Chinese as it does in English.
Particular online delight has come from the discovery of a restaurant whose sign gives its English name as "Translate Server Error".
How the "German sinologist" came to mistake a strip club advertisement for a piece of classical poetry has not been made clear. An apology for the cover's "inappropriate content" to Chinese subscribers from the Max Planck Institute said: "To our sincere regret, it has now emerged that the text contains deeper levels of meaning, which are not immediately accessible to a non-native speaker."
Chinese readers however suspect a practical joke, at best, if not a calculated insult to the pride of the Chinese nation.
Dancing Matt profits from YouTube jig Matt dancing in Bali for his new global ad campaign with Visa.
Asher Moses December 1, 2008 - 12:47PM
Like reality TV winners, most YouTube stars are back to their day jobs within months but Harding has kept his jig going for four years since he appeared in his first web video.
During that time he has been paid to travel to the four corners of the globe three times, simply to be filmed dancing badly at various locations and in front of some of the world's most famous landmarks.
Now Harding, 31, is the face of a new global marketing campaign by Visa, which has been running since late last month on television in eight countries, including Australia.
In an email interview, Harding said he had also been hired to appear in several travel agency advertisements and by Google to create a new layer for Google Earth, showing off his favourite dancing locations.
He has also appeared on hundreds of talk shows around the world - including The Tonight Show With Jay Leno, the Jimmy Kimmel show and The Tyra Banks Show - and is frequently paid to speak at events and conferences.
"Speaking has become an unanticipated side occupation that I very much enjoy. I'm not very good at it, but I'm learning a lot," Harding wrote in his online journal after returning from a speaking engagement at a gathering of animal-feed salespeople in Minneapolis.
By May, Harding said he would have his first book in stores and he has not ruled out travelling the world again to make new clips.
He said the book would be a collection of anecdotes about making his videos.
Asked how long he expected to be able to milk his internet celebrity for cash, he said he had no idea.
"I don't pursue projects like this. I just make the videos and sometimes other cool opportunities come along," Harding, who keeps his earnings close to his chest, said.
For the Visa project, the financial terms of which have not been disclosed, Harding travelled to China, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore and Vietnam for two weeks with his girlfriend, keeping a diary on his blog.
"It was sort of like a paid vacation," he said.
But that's nothing compared with the travelling the pair did for Harding's latest YouTube video, which went up five months ago and has already garnered 13 million hits.
For the 4½-minute clip, Harding spent 14 months travelling to 42 countries. He did his geeky jive with Bollywood dancers in Gurgaon, India, with humpback whales in Tonga, with lemurs in Madagascar and even in zero gravity in Nellis Airspace, Nevada.
That trip began just months after Harding returned from a world tour of 39 countries for his second internet video, which was published on YouTube in June 2006 and has notched up 12 million views.
Unlike most viral web hits, Harding's popularity has increased with time. The 2006 video took a little over two years to reach 10 million hits but the latest one passed that mark in 83 days. Both were sponsored by Stride gum.
After high school, Harding, following his dad's advice, decided to skip university and become a video game developer. His career took him to Brisbane's Pandemic Studios in 2000 for 2½ years. I was there that he devised his now famous jig.
His first video, filmed while travelling with a co-worker and published on his website in January 2005 before the days of YouTube, was made simply as a running gag for family and friends but quickly spread virally across the web. It was viewed about 2 million times.
