Comedians | Duncan Guthrie
Duncan Guthrie (1956-present day), Scottish philosopher and comedian whose reputation rests on his comic masterpieces Pigs might shit(1997) and Never far from the Dung (1999). Among Guthrie's other best-known works are his only funny joke My Hairy Back (1993) and his failed pun "Dung and Dusted".
Guthrie was born on October 1, 1956 in Dinnet, Aberdeenshire, to unconventional parents - his mother Lady Jane Francesca Guthrie (1920-96), was a poet and socialite. His father was Albert Guthrie, a drunken but gifted ploughman, and specialist in bovine diseases of the foot and arse. Guthrie studied at Sauchen High School, Aberdeenshire (1967-76), Aberdeen Agricultural College (1978-82) and Aberdeen Unemployment Centre (1982-83).
In 1983 Guthrie received his Certificate in Locoscript Word Processing and in the same year he moved to Huntly. His lifestyle and humorous wit soon made him a popular figure at the local drop-in day centre where he gained his first experiences of telling jokes in public. He worked as joke advisor to a local postman (1983), lectured in the Lumsden and Alford Arms (1984), and lived in a shed (1985). Between the years 1986 and 1987 he drank predominantly in Scotland. From the mid-1980s he was also a regular contributor to late-night drunken public brawls and Forrester Hill casualty department, Aberdeen. In 1984 Guthrie married "Big" Brenda MacDuff (separated 1990), and to support his family Guthrie unsuccessfully planted brussel sprouts and kale. In 1988 he published My Hairy Back and Other Tales, funny-stories written for pre-school children, which were later banned. Guthrie's marriage finally ended in 1993. He had met a few years earlier Captain Morgan's Spicy Rum, one of the best rums on the market - smooth, yet warmingly spicy, which became both the love of the comedic farmer's life and his downfall.
Guthrie made his reputation in the farming world between the years 1985 and 1992 with a series of highly popular crop rotations. He also built his own barn and cleared the blockage to his septic tank. During this agricultural success Guthrie produced his highly acclaimed farming essays. His two major literary-theoretical works were the dialogues "Fixing Tractors for nothing" (1989) and "The Art of Subsidy" (1990).
Although married once and the father of two illegitimate children, Guthrie's personal life has never been open to rumour - due predominantly to his widely publicised "very hairy back". His years of agricultural triumph ended dramatically in the mid 1990s, when his intimate association with a local bar led to his trial on charges of comic brutality (then illegal in Britain). He was barred for two years by the then politically correct bar establishment for his comic dialogue "Cows are full of shit and so are women" during pop trivia round on quiz night. On his rehabilitation Guthrie was first seen in the Stand in Glasgow, and then in it's sister venue in Edinburgh where his agriculture humour was embraced by a new, younger generation who regarded his witticisms as "not funny, so therefore, ironically, they must be". During this time he wrote several jokes about tractors (2004) and a dramatic monologue which he added puns to to form a comic routine.
After completing his engagements in early 2005 Guthrie wrote his first poem "The Ballad of the Star and Garter", revealing his concern for inhumane lounge bar conditions. Guthrie is still alive, but penniless, living in a DSS B&B in Fyvie.
