Ah, the dreaded lurgy! That charmingly British term for when you’re not quite sure if you’re dying or just feeling so rubbish that you’d rather not risk the gamble. And to think it all started with The Goon Show, as if Spike Milligan and Eric Sykes decided the world needed a fun way to say “I’ve got something awful, but don’t ask me what it is because I couldn’t possibly explain it.”
The OED’s suggestion that lurgy might stem from fever-lurdan, or “the disease of laziness,” is equally delightful. There’s something endearingly Victorian about the idea that lethargy itself could be diagnosed as a condition. Although, if you’re afflicted by a “disease of laziness,” are you really unwell or just achieving an advanced state of loafing? Perhaps those afflicted simply never recovered because… well, they couldn’t be bothered.
And that bit about Jimi Hendrix taking acid to appreciate The Goons more? Absolutely perfect. Forget unlocking the secrets of the universe—sometimes you just need a little something extra to truly “get” a gag about an imaginary epidemic sweeping Britain. Maybe that’s the real cure for the lurgy: a Goon Show marathon and some unconventional Hendrix-inspired listening techniques