You Don't Have to Be Mad to Work Here: A Psychiatrist’s Life

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In July 1921 an article in “The Phonograph” of St. Paul, Nebraska credited an unnamed local business man with an instance referring to golf:³ Spike’s manic depression is well-documented, and me, I escaped alcoholism 35 years ago. I spent time in a drying-out clinic – at least that’s what you would call it today. They were mental hospitals in those days. But I saw myself as a political refugee in there. In December 1930 “The Arizona Daily Star” of Tucson, Arizona printed an instance within a section dedicated to contributions from readers:⁸ In 1983 Douglas Adams and John Lloyd published “The Meaning of Liff”. The authors invented definitions for words such as “snitterfield”:¹⁶ But not everyone in the chaotic Uxbridge Road headquarters was as troubled as he, or the manically depressed Milligan.

It was an inauspicious, and unlikely, birthplace for some of the finest comedies this country has ever produced. Adam Breede, invited to join a country club, responds somewhat enigmatically that while one does not have to be crazy to play golf, it helps a lot. Relaxation at appropriate times is also beneficial, whether at lunchtime or breaks – quiet areas where you can read a paper or catch up on social media or simply enjoy a much needed cup of tea. For the slightly more energetic, table tennis tables, pool tables and the like are often used as a simple and effective distraction. People however need room to breathe and think and meet as well, so it is important that they can move away from their desks from time to time – a change of scene or an escape from the phones allows for the blue sky thinking that powers a company forward. Small meeting rooms and break out areas help to facilitate this.Not to mention the already overly discussed government tax on migratory bird hunting licenses. Oh well, you don’t have to be a nut to go hunting and fishing, but it helps.

Hopefully rather than having to be mad to work for you they’ll be keen to work for you and increase productivity along the way. The combination of creative pressures, personality flaws and the gallons of alcohol consumed during the legendary lunchtime sessions in the haunts around Shepherds Bush all took their toll on the team. Jul: Mr. Allison also admits that one doesn’t have to be crazy to write columns, but that it helps. (Attributed to Albert Allison) In August 1926 a columnist called Percy the Pest in a Quincy, Massachusetts newspaper employed another instance:⁷ In November 1933 “The Evansville Press” of Indiana published an article about Mrs. Frank Churchill (formerly Carolyn Kay Shafer) who was the personal secretary of Walt Disney. She credited Disney with a comical instance about the workplace:¹⁰In the dull light of austerity, the freedom we were promised from the forty-year Fordist drudge of previous generations begins to look a lot like the personal chaos of precarious work. Depression, anxiety, and suicides are on the rise throughout the global economic north – a trend consistently linked to the global economic downturn. So in the spirit of all that’s bleak, let’s take a look at the madness of work in a time of austerity; how it makes us mad, how it depends upon our madness. The Price of Precarity. His script depicts the parting of ways between himself and Speight as sour and frosty. But in converstaion, he is more circumspect than the play, suggesting that the on-stage characters and events may not be entirely factual, instead merely capturing the spirit of the times. And that’s what Antrobus is making up for now. He has already written memoirs of his time with the tormented Milligan, called Surviving Spike Milligan, in which he touched on his drink problem. Antrobus remembers: “I left Sandhurst at 21 because I didn’t want to kill people I thought I’d be a famous comedian and writer.

Jun: You don’t have to be crazy to play this on a saxophone, but it helps a lot. (Crossword clue in “Judge” magazine) Ray [Galton] and Alan [Simpson] seemed more steady,” Antrobus says now. “They were wonderful writers who did a great job week after week. But even they would sit in silence for days until they had an idea We were so different. Stalin was his hero. He would say ‘purge the bastards’ and had a five-year plan for his career.” One of the business men of this city remarked last year, when certain fellows were trying to organize a golf club, that “A man don’t have to be crazy to play golf, but it helps a great deal.” That man now carries a golf bag and he plays the game with the rest of the fellows …Jul: A man don’t have to be crazy to play golf, but it helps a great deal. (Attributed to unnamed business man in St. Paul, Nebraska) One of the captions, written by Ralph Spence, reads: “You don’t have to be crazy to dance the Charleston, but it helps.”

Mr. Disney is never too busy to be genuinely interested in each individual. He often says jokingly: ‘You don’t have to be crazy to work here, but it helps!’” instantly memorable and spread through offices and workshops like wildfire. The sort of thing one can buy a printed sign of in a joke shop.’ Since c. 1960.Question for Quote Investigator: I first encountered the following quip many years ago. Here are two versions: But of Speight, who died in 1998 at thee age of 78, Antrobus will say: “ I enjoyed working with him – and drinking with him. He introduced me to George Bernard Shaw.” In 1977 “A Dictionary of Catch Phrases” compiled by Eric Partridge included an entry for: “you don’t have to be mad to work here — but it helps”. The entry described the rapid dissemination of the quip:¹⁵ Slowly, though, things changed, in society and in comedy alike. “To get rid of censorship was great,” Antrobus recalls. “I worked on That Was The Week That Was, which was radical at the time.” But he’s not quite so keen on how attitudes have ended up. In June 1925 the humor magazine “Judge” published a crossword puzzle with a clue that referred to playing the saxophone. The answer to the clue was the word “solo”:⁶