Talk:Moules

After they're "removed from their habitual surroundings" they may be steamed in white wine and served with frites and mayonnaise. "Moulies" seem to be a land-dwelling species and not related. --Old Dickens (talk) 00:54, 21 December 2018 (UTC)

(Below is pasted from article Dec 2022 Moishe Rosenbaum (talk) 01:34, 3 December 2022 (UTC))

Annotation

On the Roundworld, there was a long-running radio comedy show called Round The Horne, which in the best British music-hall tradition relied on a succession of double and single entendres worthy of Nanny Ogg in order to raise laughs. (Dating from the late 1960's, RTH is currently repeated on a never-ending Moebious loop on BBC Seven)

A recurring character was dubious folk-singer Rambling Syd Rumpo (Kenneth Williams) who effectively invented the "zero entendre", where a made-up word with no meaning at all was manipulated into sounding as if it were something horrendous or filthy. Sung in an all-purpose Borsetshire English rural accent, his songs conveyed meaning out of nothing. Imagine the following, sung to the tune of "Clementine":-

"So they hung him by the postern,
Nailed his moulies to the fence;
For to warn all young cordwanglers
That it was a grave offence"

Ballad of the Woggler's Moulie

TP's use of "moule" echoes Williams' use of "moulie" and for much the same reasons. The line about "they hung him by the postern" is also reminiscent of Carrot's early dialogue with Nobby:-

"Back in the mountains, if a thief was caught, he was hung up by the..."

He paused, idly rattling a doorknob. Nobby froze. "By the what?" he asked, in horrified fascination....

"We hang them up by the town hall! Sometimes for days. They don't do it again, I can tell you" (Corgi PB, p55)