The Ministry of Silly Walks T-Shirt

First broadcast in September 1970: a civil servant in a bowler hat and a pinstripe suit, carrying a briefcase, doing something appalling with his legs on the way to work.

The joke is not the walk. The joke is the bureaucracy — a government department, properly funded, with a Minister who explains in a reasonable voice that his walk is not particularly silly and the budget has been cut to a level where silliness is no longer viable. It is the most English piece of comedy ever committed to tape, and John Cleese’s legs are doing something no human body should agree to.

Daddy is of the opinion that a man should own exactly one funny shirt, and that this is the correct one because the humour is dry rather than loud.

The shirt itself is the good kind of basic: combed ring-spun cotton, preshrunk, side-seamed so it hangs straight, taped shoulders so the collar doesn’t twist after the fortieth wash. It fits like the tee you’ve had for ten years, on day one.

How to wear it

Navy or black tee under an open oxford, good trousers, proper shoes. Dress like the civil servant, not like the walk.