Chubbie Chumps

"Chubbie Chumps" is an episode of the award-winning British comedy television series The Goodies.

This episode is also known as "Radio 2" and "The Beauty Contest" as well as "Housewives" and "Miss Housewife".

Written by The Goodies, with songs and music by Bill Oddie.

Plot

Graeme and Bill return from their fishing trip to discover that the office wasn't completely clean and Tim has become obese through eating huge amounts of lard. Tim has also taken to listening to a radio show which, it turns out, is also listened to by a lot of housewives (all of whom have also become obese), and this leads the group (Tim included) to a health club, where they slim down again.

Meanwhile Bill and Graeme are cleaning the office themselves, before Tim comes back from the health club. They find that Tim is slim again with a feminine look. Tim continues listening to the radio and the disc jockey announces a Beauty pageant for housewives, called Miss Housewife of the Year, on Friday night at the Royal Albert Hall. Tim enters the contest, but Graeme forbids him to go to the pageant because he's not a housewife - not even a miss - but it's no use. Tim walks off to make himself pretty for the pageant because he won't listen to his friends. When Graeme telephones the radio station, the disc jockey says "Hello Darling?" Graeme answers back "Don't you Darling me, Mate!" and makes the disc jockey accidentally admit why he doesn't want any fat women in the pageant, leading to the disc jockey getting fired for his comments. When the BBC makes an announcement for hiring a new disc jockey to take the previous disc jockey's place, Graeme has an idea to change the Beauty Pageant and takes the job.

Graeme becomes a disc jockey and does all the voices of other disc jockeys. Bill tries to convince Tim that Graeme is on the radio and believes he's gone mad with power. Then, Bill hears about the prize money. Graeme makes further instructions to the housewives which make them fat again (Tim wants to also join in, but is prevented from doing so by Bill).

On Friday night at the Albert Hall, the beauty contest has started with Graeme welcoming all the obese housewives. The men and judges are not impressed with them. Then Tim (Mrs Cricklewood), who has stayed slim, becomes the winner of Miss Housewife of the Year. Tim and Bill are happy to win the contest but Graeme is displeased with Bill's misunderstanding of his plan. The housewives become angry with the Goodies and chase them to get the prize cup. By the time the trio gets exhausted from running, they notice that the housewives have lost all their fat and become slim again while on the run, so the Goodies blow the dresses off the housewives (leaving them dressed in their underwear). Then the tune for The Benny Hill Show is heard as the Goodies chase all the housewives around the park.

Cultural references

• Beauty contest
• Health club
• The Benny Hill Show — where the ending music and chase of the Benny Hill Show is used as the ending music and chase for the episode.

Notes

• The Goodies' knack for annoying BBC Radio DJs found its perfect place in Square Table (a show where Graeme does all the voices). First, Jimmy Savile is presented as having "no knowledge of pop music" (followed by a mention of his Clunk Click Every Trip safety campaigns). And Tony Blackburn is said to only like "bubblegum music".
• The initials ISIRTA can be seen printed on the wall with chalk. All three Goodies appeared in the radio program.

References

• "The Complete Goodies" — Robert Ross, B T Batsford, London, 2000
• "The Goodies Rule OK" — Robert Ross, Carlton Books Ltd, Sydney, 2006
• "From Fringe to Flying Circus — 'Celebrating a Unique Generation of Comedy 1960-1980'" — Roger Wilmut, Eyre Methuen Ltd, 1980
• "The Goodies Episode Summaries" — Brett Allender
• "The Goodies — Fact File" — Matthew K. Sharp

External links

• Radio 2 at the Internet Movie Database

("Chubbie Chumps" is listed under an alternative title at IMDb)