The Greatest Show on Legs

The Greatest Show On Legs
Satirical cartoon from The Sun's newspaper depicting the Greatest Show On Legs with then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
Medium	Comedy, television, theatre
Nationality	British
Years active	1978–present
Genres	Sketch comedy, surreal humour, physical comedy
Members	Martin Soan Adam Taffler Matt Roper
Former members	Malcolm Hardee (deceased) Terry Alderton Adam Bloom Steve Bowditch Dr. Brown Keith Chegwin Chris Lynam Simon Munnery Dickie Richards Bob Slayer Arthur Smith Holly Burn
Website	MartinSoan.co.uk

The Greatest Show On Legs (also known as The Legs) is a surreal comedy group, founded in the United Kingdom by comedian Martin Soan, and joined after by the late Malcolm Hardee. The group, continually performing with a changing line-up with Soan at the helm, played an important role in the development of alternative comedy at the end of the 1970s and into the 1980s.

The Greatest Show on Legs was founded as a one-man adult Punch and Judy act by Martin Soan as a teenager. He discovered that if he wore the puppet booth over his shoulders, revealing only his legs, he could easily carry the show from pub to pub. Malcolm Hardee, recently released from prison, became Martin's driver and the The Legs soon evolved into a surreal sketch group. The Greatest Show on Legs became a regular at the Tramshed venue in Woolwich, alongside the likes of Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson. Soon afterwards, in 1979, The Comedy Store opened in Soho and The Greatest Show on Legs became regulars there.

Their breakthrough came in 1982, when they performed the Naked Balloon Dance, their signature sketch, on Chris Tarrant's anarchic late-night television show O.T.T., earning huge applause from the studio audience but drawing complaints from Mary Whitehouse, the founder of the National Viewers and Listeners Association.

The Legs also performed the dance at a Trades Union Congress conference in Blackpool during the years of Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government, substituting large cut-outs of the Prime Minister's face in place of the balloons.