10 Famous Comedians With Dark Sides You Didn’t Know About
7. Spike Milligan
"It's a gift and a curse. You get the pain much worse than anybody else, but you see a sunrise much more beautiful than anybody else." Famed for his wacky radio comedy programme "The Goon Show" and credited for the world's funniest joke, Spike Milligan was surreal, eccentric and wildly imaginative; hailed 'the godfather of alternative comedy'. It's highly likely you grew up with nonsense poems like "On The Ning Nang Nong" and "Bazonka" - his wacky and witty creativity forever cemented into our nostalgic consciousness. But behind the silly verses and side-splitting catchphrases was a tortured man, fighting a severe battle with bipolar depression; and he was remarkably open about it. In fact, he was one of the first in the public eye to talk frankly about his own mental illness. Milligan suffered at least ten major breakdowns throughout his life, several of them lasting over a year. He got so paralysingly low at points that he would ask to be hospitalised, or put into a deep narcosis, saying, "I cannot stand being awake. The pain is too much... Something has happened to me, this vital spark has stopped burning - I go to a dinner table now and I don't say a word, just sit there like a dodo." Many of Milligan's troubles go back to trauma serving in World War Two. In 1942, while serving as a signaller at the Battle of Monte Cassino, he was hospitalised for a mortar wound to his right leg and shellshock. His less-than-sympathetic Major demoted him... and he didn't know what to do with himself after that. When The Goon Show became popular, his manic episodes became extremely frighting; always on the edge of rage. He shot a 15-year-old boy with an airgun for being in his garden, attacked a stage-doorman with a walking stick, and threatened to kill many of his fellow actors (including Peter Sellers, with a potato knife). In 1970, a documentary on depression called "The Other Spike" was broadcast, he co-authored a book called "Depression and How to Survive It" and presented a video titled "Me, Depressed? Don't Make Me Laugh: A Guide To Overcoming Depression". Spike's Best Lines "Said Hamlet to Ophelia, 'I'll do a sketch of thee, What kind of pencil shall I use, 2B or not 2B?'" "I thought I'd begin by reading a poem by Shakespeare, but then I thought, why should I? He never reads any of mine." "After five days in hospital, I took a turn for the nurse."
