Archaelogist Spike

Grytpype: Listen to this nine o'clock type news. Greenslade: American archaeologists digging at Stonehenge have discovered the skeleton of a Stone Age dustbin. They are continuing their excavations and... [fade] Grytpype: You see Neddy, you want to be discovered, so we take you to Stonehenge and bury you. Seagoon: Brilliant. Brilliant. Why didn't I think of that? Grytpype: Because you're an idiot.

(from 'The Plasticine Man', Series 8 Episode 13, broadcast 23 December 1957)

Here's a new one on me - Spike Milligan had a fascination with archaeology. It dated from his childhood in India, and he made a whole programme about it in 1989.

He's in danger of being arrested for excavating old jokes, if you ask me.

Seagoon: Ah, inspector Tooth. Bad news for you. Your grandmother, Fred Pete, is dead. Jim Spriggs: Yes, I read about it in a newspaper. Seagoon: He didn’t die in a newspaper, mate. He was found under a copy of The Poultry Gazette! Spriggs: Poultry Gazette? I suspect fowl play! Seagoon: I suspect old jokes! Spriggs: Constable, arrest all old jokes. Willium: Right. Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the other side! I arrest you! Got him.

(from 'The £1,000,000 Penny', Series 9 Episode 3, broadcast 17 November 1958)