Rambling Syd Rumpo was a
folk singer character played by English comedic genius
Kenneth Williams in the radio comedy series
Round the Horne. The Rambling Syd sketches generally began with a short discourse on the nature of the song which would inexorably follow; these discourses in their own right would have assured Rambling Syd Rumpo a place in radio history as masterpieces of suggestivity and
double-entendre. For this, Rambling Syd was customarily introduced by
Kenneth Horne, who would set things up by (for example) inquiring as to the nature and origin of the song. Rambling Syd would (usually) respond with an "Ullo, mi dearios" before launching into the ensuing detailed explanation which left a great deal to the imagination.
The songs themselves pushed and extended boundaries of acceptable sexual suggestivity way beyond the narrow confines of a Sunday lunchtime radio slot.
Williams later starred (with Leslie Phillips and others) in the short-lived Radio sketch show Oh, Get On with It, which also featured appearances as Rambling Syd.
Many of the words used by Rambling Syd were made up, and have subsequently entered the English language.
Some of the more memorable songs
- The Ballad of the Woggler's Mooly (to the tune of Clementine)
- D'Ye Ken Jim Pubes
- Green Grow My Nadgers O!
- The Black Grunger of Hounslow
- The Ballad of the Young Cordwangler
Note: spelling corrected from Rambling Sid Rumpo
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