Why am I linking to a story about Debbie Ash?

“The phone hasn’t stopped ringing”

Pick the bloody thing up then! You won’t get much business otherwise…

mmmmmmm Debbie Ash.

Sorry, who is she?

She played Marilyn Monroe in Better than Life. And she seems to think that Marylin’s catchphrase is “a booby doo”.

Although I suppose the director has to take some of the blame…

i always thought she said it right, but she says it really too quickly…

I wish it were as close to the original as “abooby doo”. At least that sounds vaguely right and has the right number of syllables. Or is that what she says earlier in the episode? I was thinking of the bit on the golf course, where she says “How’s about a little bit of ooby dooby do?” Not only does she fuck up the catchphrase, but because Danny is forced to repeat what she says, it fucks up his joke!

The beach one is fine in the show, isn’t it? “Boop-boop-be-doop.” (It’s written in the script as “Oo-oo-be-do”, but both cover the basic rhythm of the lyric okay.)

In fact, is the one of the golf course wrong? “Ooby dooby do” isn’t meant to be “Boop-boop-be-doo” there, is it?

Hell with it - no, I’ve just checked, it’s not. The 1988 script says “How ‘bout a little oobie-doobi-doo?” (Cat replies ” “How ‘bout a little oobie-doobi-don’t?”) She doesn’t fuck anything up. I know Rob mentions her having trouble with it in the Soup intro - and Ed discusses it in his new commentary - but there’s nothing wrong with the version in the show at all, is there?

>“Ooby dooby do” isn’t meant to be “Boop-boop-be-doo” there, is it?

I think Andrew’s right on this, actually. I always took “ooby dooby doo” to be a reference to the Roy Orbison song.

Why that’s coming out of Marilyn’s mouth I don’t know, but it never made me think of anything but a reference to a popular old tune.

I, stand corrected Ted.

Yeah, I was talking about the beach scene, not the golf course one - which I never had a problem with.

Still, in the beach scene, it still comes across as “a booby doo” to me. If she’s saying “boop boop be do”, she’s gabbling it way too quickly. Which again, might or might not be her fault.

Whatever. She’s better in Hot Gossip. And probably at pole dancing.

Why does Marilyn Monroe feature so much in Red Dwarf anyway?

*shrugs* It’s a Rob-n-Doug thing, I guess. Rob in particular does seem to like his ’50s Americana…