MR'Hey you, what are you doing in my garden?'
Joe Pasquale , compared with Michael Redmond
A comic opens with 'A lot of people say to me, "Hey you"', and the payoff reveals the next words are 'what are you doing in my garden?'
Pasquale performed the line to a national TV audience, having already used it in his Blackpool summer-season act. (paraphrase)
Royal Variety Performance, 1995find on YouTube ↗
“A lot of people say to me, 'Hey you,' … 'what are you doing in my garden?'”
London alternative-comedy circuit, 1987quote source ↗find on YouTube ↗
The same one-liner, setup and reveal, eight years after Redmond wrote it; Pasquale said it reached him second-hand through a pantomime.
- Premise 39/40
- Structure 28/30
- Punchline 29/30
- Premise39/40Same gag: people say Hey you, and the reveal is what are you doing in my garden.
- Structure28/30Same two-part shape; Redmond's small dismissive gesture before the reveal is not recorded for Pasquale.
- Punchline29/30The reveal line is the same: what are you doing in my garden.
Setup
A lot of people say to me, Hey you
Setup
A lot of people say to me, Hey you
Turn
A pause before the reveal; staging not on record
Turn
A tiny dismissive gesture before the reveal
Punchline
What are you doing in my garden
Punchline
What are you doing in my garden
Scores and beats are our editorial reading of the public record, not a ruling.
Context
When and where
Redmond wrote the line in summer 1987 and performed it in London alternative clubs. Pasquale told it at the Royal Variety Performance in 1995, after first using it in a 1994 Blackpool summer season.
What followed
Pasquale said he came by it innocently, after fellow performer Phil Nice shouted the line as stage dialogue in a 1993 pantomime. Stewart Lee investigated in a 1995 Sunday Times piece and later turned the saga into a famously drawn-out routine.
Receipts
Photos via Wikimedia Commons: Joe Pasquale by Lyndasteele, CC BY 3.0