TEd SAid: Many years ago, my sister, an amateur thespian, told me that when a director wants background crowd noises it is customary to tell those extras producing said noise to say rhubarb rhubarb rhubarb rhubarb to one another.
That's where it came from, old chum. The best take-off of it I ever saw was a sketch in a British sketch comedy called "At Last The 1948 Show". It had a number of wonderful features, including:
- The self-confessed "lovely Amy McDonald"
- Marty Feldman at his goggle-eyed best
- Some of the most beautifully-crafted comedy sketches I've seen, before or since.
One recurring sketch occurred, which I suspect was thrown in to fill out the time available, was a bunch of people standing around saying "Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb ..." to each other for no apparent reason. Of course, this was directly linked to its use as described by TEd above.
