In addition to carrying the weekly strips Stage School, Calculator Kid (plus spin-off puzzle feature Calculator Corner) and Mustapha Million in Whizzer and Chips' post-Whoopee-merge era (Whizzer and Chips dated 06 April 1985 until the 27 October 1990 final issue), a number of other Cheeky-related items not associated with any of the aforementioned features occasionally appeared in Whizzer and Chips across the period.
The first instances of this occurred in the consecutive Whizzer and Chips' issues dated 27 February and 05 March 1988, where each of those edition's episode of the Bumpkin Billionaires carried a strip of text gags spanning the bottom of their respective 2-page stories.
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| First page of the Bumpkins episode from Whizzer and Chips 27 February 1988 Art: Jimmy Hansen |
These gag strips were entitled Farmer Jokes in the 27 February issue, and Farm Fun the following week (the change of name probably not because some filthy-minded readers expected gags on an entirely different topic which, when it comes to humour of a dubious nature, would have been scraping the bottom). The source of all the jokes in these two collections was Cheeky's Cut-Out Comedy Catalogues, a filler feature which occupied space in Cheeky Weekly as the comic wound down towards its cancellation.
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| First section of the Farmer Giles joke book Cheeky Weekly 12 January 1980 Main image of Farmer Giles by Jimmy Hansen, reprinted from Cheeky Weekly dated 26 May 1979 |
Whizzer and Chips reprinted 16 Comedy Catalogue jokes as accompaniments to the Bumpkins, and clearly there was a correlation between the Bumpkins and their fellow risible rustic Farmer Giles, but despite there being 41 agricultural quips in the Farmer Giles booklet, the Whizzer and Chips editor also turned to other of the Comedy Catalogues for certain of the recycled laughs.
Jokes not selected from the Farmer Giles catalogue but considered suitably agriculturally adjacent were...
Why did the policemen get a job on a farm? HE WANTED TO BE A CORN-STABLE! (sourced from the Comedy Catalogue of Constable Chuckle Jokes - Cheeky Weekly 22 December 1979)
What car would a potato grower buy? AN ALFASPUD! (sourced from the Comedy Catalogue of Mechanic Jokes - Cheeky Weekly 15 December 1979). This was still a valid gag in 1988, as the Alfasud, which first rolled onto the streets in 1971, was in production until 1989 and no doubt graced the forecourts of car dealerships for some time after that.
Why are poultry scared? 'COS THEY'RE USUALLY CHICKEN! (sourced from the Comedy Catalogue of Petula Jokes - Cheeky Weekly 19 January 1980)
The image of Farmer Giles' country countenance which was pasted into the Comedy Catalogue at the left hand side of the image above was reused in Whizzer and Chips dated 05 March 1988 to accompany the joke, 'What would Farmer Giles' wife use to repair his dungarees? A VEGETABLE PATCH!'.
In the 05 March 1988 issue of Whizzer and Chips (the same issue which contained the second batch of recyled Comedy Catalogue jokes beneath the Bumpkins), more Catalogue gags were featured below the Junior Rotter episode, with the jokes being allocated the title Wacky West. Serious students of the Cheeky universe will realise that a link can be made between Junior Rotter, a strip set in the USA (presumably, given the lead character's spoofing of the main antagonist in TV soap Dallas, located in that city), and Cheeky Weekly's comical cowpoke, Six-Gun Sam.
The Whizzer and Chips editor had clearly made the same connection as he selected 8 wild west witticisms from the collection of 40 cowboy quips originally presented in the Comedy Catalogue of Six-Gun Sam Jokes as featured in Cheeky Weekly dated 08 December 1979 to accompany Whizzer and Chips' 05 March 1988 Junior Rotter episode.
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| First page of the Junior Rotter episode from Whizzer and Chips 05 March 1988 Art: Trevor Metcalfe |
Quite why 2 episodes of Bumpkin Billionaires and a single Junior Rotter escapade were accompanied by gag strips running along the bottom of the page is something of a puzzle, unless these were reprints of strips that were for some reason foreshortened on their original outings.
I'll be examining further Whizzer and Chips Cheeky remnants soon.
