The Beatles’ blending of “Goon” humor with their own native Liverpool wit was yet another distinction between them and other groups. Though much of what they did and said was for self-amusement, they were rarely not funny to everyone else. Pop stars liked to mumble (as directed) that they hoped to become “all-round entertainers”—by implication, a singing career alone wasn’t enough—but the Beatles achieved it naturally and while remaining true to themselves and their music. They were never anything so specialist as a comedy-rock group (such combinations did exist), they were simply a group who
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