Maybe folks started listening for "goofs" when radio became a luxury during the Great Depression.

(Until then, I suppose they occurred most often in simple, face-to-face communication, or maybe with megaphones.) For the longest time, Harry von Zell's alleged foul-up-purportedly heard from sea to shining sea when radio was yet young-has to be among the funniest ever.

Ostensibly, his 1931 script should have been simple.