Me and a friend went to see Monty Python on the stage in Leeds, in the 70's. Afterward we were going to a restaurant called Get Stuffed down a side street in Leeds. We had bought a Python cassette at the theatre and were playing it quite loud as we sat outside the restaurant in the car. John Cleese walked past and did a double take, then went into the restaurant.
This makes a good party game at xmas when the family is bored with Charades. One person plays the shopkeeper (Cheesemonger?) and another the customer. The customer has to ask for a different cheese each time while the shopkeeper must come up with a different excuse for why they don't have that particular cheese. If the customer can't name another type of cheese, the shopkeeper wins and if the shopkeeper can't come up with an excuse for why they don't have that cheese, the customer wins. This can easily help alleviate any post xmas boredom...though only for about 5 minutes.
😂 SO nice to see you enjoying these ! The Pythons are largely responsible for a huge shift in British Youths’ thinking and perception of society and human behaviour….things in England were never the same again after these guys arrived 🤗
LMAO ! again !. for me one of the best Python sketches. I went on to discover a lot of cheese after seeing it. Hey EB, please check out Pythons "Nobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition" ! guaranteed you'll laugh your socks off.
The Python lads released this on Audio with a few swears thrown in - I remember listening to it with my mum as I hadn't seen the TV version at the time. We were both crying with laughter. How Palin keeps a straight face coming up with all those excuses is beyond me
@@jamesalexander5623 I used to eat "Bazooka Joe" gum when I was a lad in London or, indeed, wherever I was. I chewed it n Yarmouth, Exmouth, Burnham On Crouch,all kinds of places.
the only comedy show to have a style of humor named after them "Pythonesque" now that's an achievement. Also a lot of there sketches were filmed around where i live, Big plus.
Two things to note on this sketch. John Cleese REAL name is CHEESE he changed it for stage/tv. The other in sketch is Michael Palin who was born in Sheffield, YORKSHIRE. When Cleese does the translation of his character of "Oxford toff" dialect he then translates it to a broad YORKSHIRE accent for Palin's character to understand - it is poking fun at the English class system as well as the regional dialects. Hope this helps you understand it more. Happy New Year!
The instrument played in the shop is a bouzouki. The music sounds like an amateur approximation of Greek folk music and the dance is a bit like someone trying a Greek dance (without really knowing the steps). Which is exactly the kind of surreal detail Pythons would add in a sketch!
Ah brilliant 👏 I love Monty Python. My friend who died if cancer at the age of 35 loved it too and when it was the 40th anniversary of the Holy Grail, in-between his Radiotherapy, we took him to the giant cinema screen in Manchester, then to the Beir Keller in Manchester afterwards. It was a Wednesday night and his wife told us to behave and not be home too late with him. We didn't listen to her. It was student night and the Beer was half price and served in 2 pint stein glasses. All the University students were dressed in Lederhosen and it was packed for a midweek night. In the End Tom (R.I.P. ) put us to shame. He was dancing on the tables with the students. He was the youngest out of 5 of us. I'd just turned 40 and the eldest lad was 42. We drank and downed that much beer me and my mate Smithy were being sick in the corner. Whilst all these 25 year old students were dancing round us with Tom, taking the piss out of us, because we couldn't handle the beer like we could of done 15ish years prior to that night. I'll never forget it. It was a fitting tribute to Tom who we called the Ginger Viking. He had a huge ginger beard and a valknut sign tattooed on his hand. When he passed, the 4 of us left all got the same tatoo in the same place on our hands. His wife went berserk at us when we fell through the door with him eventually, about 5 o clock am.
Mike Myers put it best in my opinion. "Monty Python are The Monty Python of comedy. They set the top level of humour across the board." Hope yourself & the girls had a great Christmas as well EB
the organ that plays is greek bouzouki! the dance is Chassaposerviko... a greek folklore dance!! the dudes are insane! who on earth thought of such a thing!!
The word used early in the sketch in the part where Cleese is describing why he came from the library is "esurient" (which means insatiably hungry.) A bit later, when asked if he disliked the music, Cleese comments that he, "delights in all manifestations of the Terpsichorean muse." (In ancient Greek mythology, Terpsichore was the muse of lyric poetry and dance.) In line with another posted comment, there is another, live version performed for the charity, The Secret Policeman's ball. Indeed, the language was not limited by the live broadcasting rules of the BBC, and so was a touch stronger in places. That show (Secret Policeman's Ball) has a number of sketches to be found on RU-vid. Given your delight in British humour, I suggest such a search is something you would find most entertaining.
My favorite sketch. I work in retail, and to me it highlights the feeling of conflict between salesman and customer. I’ve also used several of those excuses.
One of my favourite MP sketches. The instrument and the dancing are Greek. Another recommend one is Travel Agent, where Mr Smoketoomuch complains about Spanish holidays...
This is of the utmost hilarity. I was thinking : "Why don't you just ask him the ones he has, and pick from them?" And just just when the shop keeper was about to name the cheeses he does have, the buyer says no he wants to guess by himself !😂😂😂 That killed me!
Mr EB, this was an excellent reaction. Truth be told, as a father in the 90s I played this game out with my poor little unsuspecting daughters when they were playing in one of those pop-up tents for children in a garden. I asked them every minute for cheese, and they came up with endless excuses why they didn't have any! Grateful they are both graduates and not bouzouki players after I subjected them to such madness!
Hello Alan. Cheesy comedy, minus cheese? Have you ever seen Ripping Yarns? It was much like this by some of the Pythons. Eric Olthwaite and Golden Gordon are set in Yorkshire so Mr. Wensleydale would feel right at home.
One of their best! Please take a look at Michael Palin’s series, RIPPING YARNS - the first one, “The Testing of Eric Olthwaite” will get you into the mood (though there’s a lot of Yorkshire accent in that one), also “Escape From Stalag Luft 112B”, “Across the Andes By Frog”, “Tomkinsons’ Schooldays”, or “The Curse of the Claw”.
weird al does a parody of the this sketch on his song Alburquerque but instead of a cheese shop he visits a doughnut shop (like Dunkin Donuts). instead of getting shot in the head, he buys a box of one dozen starving weasels that rip off his flesh. The song is off his album Running with Scissors
Wikipedia has a page on this sketch, detailing all the cheeses mentioned and the responses to each. The only fictitious cheese is Venezuelan Beaver Cheese (which has probably been created since, in honor of this sketch, I'd bet money on it).
Ah the clean version! So many quotable lines in this sketch!! I delight in all manifestations of the terpsichorean muse... Well it's certainly uncontaminated by cheese..
How much did they ask? ..... 3/4 of a Million Pounds! .... What did you do? ..... I wrote them Cheque! .... And? .... They came back a day later and said it had bounced .... And I had to see Doug! ... Doug? ... Doug!
It always amazes me how John Cleese remembers every word in these types of sketches. My personal favourite is the arguments and abuse rooms. Cleese and Palin at their very best. Much funnier than the parrot sketch.
i believe the guy is playing a "balalaika." its an eastern european, mainly russian, instrument much like a guitar. mccartney mentions the balalaika in the beatles song "back on the u.s.s.r." its usually trianglur in shape but i assume there's variations. thanks for the video.
i just read below its a greek instrument called a 'bouzouki." well, i got the eastern european part right. the sounds made from both instruments are very similar.
Hey Alan will mention again Please do RIPPING YARNS "Tomkinson school days" episode, Featuring Michael Palin from MONTY PYTHON I promise you won't be disappointed it's hilarious.
The "Travel Agent sketch" from the "Live at Drury Lane" audio recording is well worth a listen if you get the chance, better than the visual recordings I have seen/heard. Really like your channel content, keep it coming!
They always cut off the punchline in these RU-vid videos in which the cheese bandits ride off into the sunset. That's why he put on a cowboys hat at the end. And now I've told you it won't be funny. Makes me mm-mm-m-mad - enough to eat some cheese.... 🧀🧀🧀
