Neddie Seagoon was a character in the 1950s British radiocomedy showThe Goon Show. He was created and performed by Welsh comedian Harry Secombe. Seagoon was usually the central character of a Goon Show episode, with Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers' many characters interacting with him and each other. Neddie Seagoon was an affable but gullible idiot. Often chronically poor and/or part of the government, Seagoon frequently falls prey to the schemes of Hercules Grytpype-Thynne and Count Jim Moriarty, and needs the help of Bluebottle, Eccles, and sometimes even Major Bloodnok to rescue himself. Neddie's appearance was based on Secombe's own likeness, exaggerated for comic effect. Thus, he was often described as very short, round and immensely fat. In "The Greenslade Story", John Snagge describes him as "a little ball of fat", while in "The Mummified Priest" Bloodnok identifies him as Seagoon on the grounds "Who else could walk under a piano stool?" He also suffers from duck's disease. He shares Secombe's tenor voice, as used to identify him in "The Mystery of the Fake Neddie Seagoons". He was also generally Welsh; in "Tales of Men's Shirts" and "The Last Smoking Seagoon" he is referred to as Ned of Wales, and in "The Pam's Paper Insurance Policy", Greenslade introduces him with the line "a bundle of Welsh rags suddenly becomes animate." His fatness is a particular subject of gags. In "Dishonoured" and "Dishonoured - Again", he gives his body mass as either 17 or 18 stone and his head mass at 20 stone, totalling either 235 or 241 kg, depending upon episode. Once, upon visiting Henry Crun's house in "Tales of Men's Shirts", Crun remarks "Did you know they've sent a rocket to photograph the other side of you?" In the episode "Nineteen Eighty Five" he says, "Over the weeks that they tortured me my weight dropped by ten stone, I went down to a mere twenty stone." In "Robin Hood", Prince John and the Sheriff of Nottingham discuss their adversary: He also appears to have been Major Bloodnok's batman at some point of time. In "The Pam's Paper Insurance Policy", we learn that he once loaned Bloodnok 100 pounds, which Bloodnok was willing to forget all about. Neddie was usually the one who greeted the audienceat the beginning of the show, referring to them as "folks" or "Dear Listeners", and introducing that week's story. He would often step out of the frame of the story, explaining elements of the plot to the audience or narrating some of the plot, and would usually converse with Wallace Greenslade ; for instance: The Seagoon character would sometimes have a different name depending on the setting of the plot; for instance:
Seagoon had several catch-phrases, seemingly random gibberish that became his trademarks, such as "Ying tong yiddle I po!” and "Needle-nardle-noo". He would also express intense surprise by repeating the word "What?!" rapidly and in rising pitch, as "Whatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhat?", and would do likewise with the word "Yes?" as "Yesyesyesyesyesyes?", generally motivating Grytpype-Thynne to request "Please. Don't do that." Seagoon also occasionally spouts patriotical nonsense, at which Grytpype says, "You silly twisted boy, you.” Often, at the end of a bout of the “Whatwhatwhats”, Seagoon would segue into making the sound of a clucking chicken.
