I bought some playing cards because I needed a Joker as part of my Morris kit.
Look what I found:
It doesn’t show up well in the scanned copy, but the clown is holding the Ace of Spades which, as I’m sure you will know, is the only card you need.
I like the card.
One question though. What is a Morris Kit?
that’s cool…on the back of Bicycle cards, there’s pictures of angels riding bicycles, but it’s from head on, so it looks like they’re riding those old penny-farthing unicycles.
A Morris Kit? Remember Knightrider, the TV series where David Hasselwhatsit played Michael Knight, a fearless crusader for justice? His technologically implausible car was provided by Knight Industries and was called “Kit” which stood for something like “Knight Industries Technology”.
Well, in the little known pilot episode, rather than using a big expensive American car, they used an old British car: a Morris Oxford. This was the original Morris Kit.
The technology in the Morris Kit was pretty basic, with a Super8 cine camera set up on a tripod on the passenger seat. The voice was an old voice box from an Action Man doll, and Michael Knight (in the pilot episode, played by David Jason) had to pull a string. Morris Kit would then respond with a random selection from a number of phrases such as “Action Man patrol, fall in!”
The pilot episode was a failure, but was discovered yrears later by a happy accident during research for a “100 worst pilot episodes” programme to fill up the Saturday evening slot when everyone is at the pub anyway. The basic idea was seen to have potential, but with a different plot, cast, theme, location and car.
I have always been quite a fan of bad pilot episodes series based on of car-related crusades for justice, and I have been building an exact replica of the original Morris Kit. I managed to find an original 1963 Morris Oxford, and I have painted it black with Hammerite Smoothrite paint.
I have been unable to find the voice box from an Action Man, but I did get one from an old Bugs Bunny doll that my brother used to own. The car now responds, “Ner, what’s up doc?” in every situation. The original Super8 camera housing has been used to conceal a modern digital video camera and I will in due course be posting a number of galleries of the Morris Kit performing various authentic stunts from the original pilot episode: a three point turn; reversing around a corner, and a hill start.
The card has been lacquered onto the bonnet to recreate the original image of a clown (David Jason is best known for his comedy roles) riding on the disc of the Sun (symbolised by a unicycle, and representing the burning quest for justice) and brandishing the Ace of Spades - which symbolises individuality and hard work in the garden.
Now, the Morris kit, on the other hand, is the costume I use for Morris dancing.
Mike
Fule, Dolphin Morris Men http://www.dolphin-morris.co.uk/
Wow - your prose never fails to entertain me, Mike. Morris Kit indeed.
Thanks also for the link to the Dolphin Morris Men site. It really has me curious, though, about the jig mentioned in your bio on the “team” page!
Chuck
Some lovely bullshitting there, Mikefule …
Serious answer:
My team does what is called Cotswold Morris which is a style of traditional dancing from Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.
At one time (1800s) each village had a team of dancers. each village had its own distinctive style and repertoire, although of course there were many similarities between neighbouring villages. The styles were identified by particular steps and hand movements, as well as different figures (patterns) in the dance.
A typical Cotswold dance has six dancers performing a set piece routine to a solo musician. There is often a Fool (as in Mikefule). Historically, the Fool just sort of improvised and skipped about through the dance, hitting people with his inflated pig’s bladder for allegedly comical effect. These days, the Fool in a modern side borrows ideas from street entertainment to add to the show.
A jig is a solo dance (or sometimes a pair dance) performed to a solo musician. My special jig is one that I dance whilst playing the harmonica. I use a small sized harmonica, and grip it with my mouth and play the meoldy whilst I dance with both hands free. As far as I know, I am the only person in the world ever to have done this, although I know that it was quite common for blues guitarists to use a similar harmonica technique before the availability of the Bob Dylan harness.
I have seen a fiddle player dance a jig, self accompanied, and a concertina player do the same. The difference is, of course, that they don’t have the opportunity to do the hand movements for the dance.
my mates cards ave a joker on a uni aswell
Re: Joker
“Mikefule” <Mikefule@NoEmail.Message.Poster.at.Unicyclist.com> wrote in
message news:Mikefule.1uhqjw@NoEmail.Message.Poster.at.Unicyclist.com…
>
>
> My team does what is called Cotswold Morris which is a style of
> traditional dancing from Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.
>
> A typical Cotswold dance has six dancers performing a set piece routine
> to a solo musician. There is often a Fool (as in Mikefule).
> Historically, the Fool just sort of improvised and skipped about through
> the dance, hitting people with his inflated pig’s bladder for allegedly
> comical effect. These days, the Fool in a modern side borrows ideas
> from street entertainment to add to the show.
>
I was once told, in all seriousness, that one should try everything in life
except Morris Dancing. 
But it’s not that bad, honest. It actually looks fun, and seems to have a
lot of interesting history behind it.
Nao
–
I hate keyboards: I never seem to get mistypes with a biro.
it is not all that odd for a joker to have a man on a unicycle, or clown
While I was in Turkey (from where I’ve just returned) (sorry, something wrong with my grammer there), I was watching the traditional dancing and thinking that we didn’t do much in the way of traditional dancing in the UK.
In Wales, ofcourse, we do have traditional welsh dancing in the Eisteddfod, but in England …
Mikefule, you’ve just restored my faith in traditional english dancing.
Cathy
My mother-in-law dances with a Leicester based border-morris group, shes CONTINUALLY badgering me to be their unicycle riding “fule”. But I’m having none of it… well, er, apart from going to Jack in the Green Festival (in Hastings) 2 years on the run. But that was before I could Unicycle so it doesn’t count.
No. I am The Fule. All others are Fools. I am aware of no other Morris Fool who has adopted this spelling.
Which Leicester-based Morris side?
Nothing wrong with the grammar.
UK dancing? The Welsh have some. The Scots have lots. The Northern Irish have lots.
As for the English, we have
Cotswold Morris
Border Morris (Shropshire/Welsh border area)
Molly dancing (East Anglia)
North west Clog (teams of clog dancers)
Step Clog (solo clog dancing, similar to tap dancing.)
Rapper (from the north east)
Longsword (also mainly northern)
3 living Derbyshire traditions in their original villages.
The Bacup Britannia Coconut dancers (yes, really)
The Abbot’s Bromley Horn Dance from Staffordshire.
There are three umbrella bodies organising Morris events. These speak for a total of over 15,000 dancers and organised a rally in trafalgar Square a year or so ago which was attended by thousands, protesting at attempts to enforce a new licensing law which would effectively make Morris dancing illegal at many small pubs with no entertainment licence.
Go to www.morrisdancing.org
for further details
But this Joker is obviously riding a Coker.
Mmmmmm…Coker-Joker.
Re: Joker
“Mikefule” <Mikefule@NoEmail.Message.Poster.at.Unicyclist.com> wrote in
message news:Mikefule.1ul7js@NoEmail.Message.Poster.at.Unicyclist.com…
>
> UK dancing? The Welsh have some. The Scots have lots. The Northern
> Irish have lots.
>
> As for the English, we have
> Cotswold Morris
> Border Morris (Shropshire/Welsh border area)
> Molly dancing (East Anglia)
> North west Clog (teams of clog dancers)
> Step Clog (solo clog dancing, similar to tap dancing.)
> Rapper (from the north east)
> Longsword (also mainly northern)
> 3 living Derbyshire traditions in their original villages.
> The Bacup Britannia Coconut dancers (yes, really)
> The Abbot’s Bromley Horn Dance from Staffordshire.
>
Well, with names like those I had to have a quick google. Especially at
the last two: The Bacup Britannia Coconut dancers and the Abbot’s Bromley
Horn Dance. What a visual feast their websites are. Well worth a browse.
British eccentricity at its very finest, but with it comes a history of more
than 700 years. I think it wonderful that such idiocy can survive though
the centuries and still make it into the corners of our modern world. Long
may it continue to do so.
Nao