I worked on this sketch as a trainee camera operator and unfortunately when Graham Chapman fired the shotgun the wadding ricocheted off the studio floor and hit me in the chest. I was splattered with wadding but didn't really feel to much. The frightening bit was people looking at me with shocked expressions on their faces. If you watch closely, Graham didn't point the riffle through the window but fires it into the floor. Anyhow I was fine, so all good.
Mansfield: "Oh, sorry old man!" Mrs. Vermin Jones: "Don't think so, Becky old chap." "Oh, sorry Becky old beast." A little gender and species confusion on the part of the well-heeled.
Best expressions: Graham Chapman Best vocalist: Carol Cleveland Best cross dresser: Eric Idle Winner: The servants keeping straight faces throughout the sketch!
You can see the actress in the maid uniform nearly lose it a few times. She's doing her absolute best to hold it together, and she manages to keep it to only a few tight smiles. If I were in her shoes I'd be absolutely howling.
I think what makes it great is its stamina. There's no major punchline, just the sheer power of Graham's delivery and his ability to keep it going. Also the word "antelope." Smashing word, that!
He truly was amazing! He was so gifted. Even his appearance in George Harrison’s Crackerbox Palace cracks me up! His timing and expressions were just epic! 😂❤🎉
Not to mention, he was half in the bag by 10:30. and often fully in by lunch. Some of the saddest stories in Show Biz are the stories of folks who dragged themselves out of the bottle, only to fall in an unrelated tragedy. Kinison, Stevie Ray. And Graham. I have no words. He was a truly talented actor and comedian, and was likely on his way to some more serious roles, as his great pal Cleese would dabble in.
Whether or not you think this is Monty Python's best sketch ever, can we all just appreciate the fact that they made a skit based entirely on intonation and facial expressions?
DealerCamel You are correct. Arguing which Monty Python skit is the funniest is like arguing religion or politics. Never get an agreement and most likely will cause a world conflict.
While I agree that world conflict would be the most likely outcome, I think we all can at least find solace in knowing that joke warfare was banned at a special session of the Geneva Convention.
John Landon The ender is often classic for Python. "You wanna come back to my place? I thought you would never ask!" at the end of the parrot sketch...excellent.
They never really knew how to do punch lines, and they constantly mock themselves for it. As everyone knows, there's a whole episode where the cast gets arrested for getting out of sketches without a proper punch line. But the lack of punch lines is part of what makes some of their sketches great. (And something's up with the notification of RU-vid comments, since I got the notification of this comment five minutes ago.)
one facet of why they were so damned good... there are often layers of actual genius at work in some this. They just... forsook the punchline. Who said you needed one? The only way they would acknowledge any kind of rule to making comedy, was when they willfully broke them. And often even worked that very act into it's own gag. They had an actual contempt for convention I think. It often shows in their work. They take what is expected, what you're supposed to do with comedy in a given situation and... they pervert it, twist it.... and I call it genius.
I wouldn't say its their best sketch at all, but its absolutely one of their most underrated. Its definitely one I watch again and again, and I always find it funny. Chapman's facial expressions are priceless here.
Yes, three pub size bottles of gin a day, as he tells us in his A Liar's Autobiography. He describes how he and his medical mates used to play a game called 'shitties.' Use your imagination :) An amusing apophthegm of his is 'masturbation is a noble pastime, enhancing as it does the faculty of the imagination.' It's a great read.
Me and my friend watched this sketch after a long drunken evening many years ago, we still quote it to each other and it's still funny now! Absolute classic, not sure I could choose a best sketch there are so many but this is definitely a favourite.
CaptHollister Every notice that Graham Chapman often played the "straight man" in sketches? In one, they even labeled him as one. Another clever bit of humor since Graham Chapman was gay ...
channelhismojo No, a quick gis shows that it is used in UK slang, too. UK, YTers can confirm this. It almost certainly was not accidental, especially when being uttered by Dr. Chapman.
Yeah this is my fav too. Fantastic script + delivery. It's not just absurdist theater - it also underscores the uselessness and degeneracy of the 'gentlemen of leisure' - an actual post-Victorian set that inherited such wealth that they never needed to work in their lives, and might actually have had nothing better to do than spend the afternoon discussing croquet hoops and their favourite syllables. The countries crossed out in the beginning is probably a subtle reference to the dwindling empire (?), emphasizing the absolute indifference and insularity of this cast of relics and hinting at their imminent demise.
Yeah thank god none of these people exist now hey! Inherited wealth sitting around and doing nothing apart from owning land. Glad we got rid of all of them!
@@studioshitaketakashita7093 But then you run the risk of getting bored and deciding to bury forests or block the sunlight with orbiting sunshields like certain people who should be enjoying retired life are trying to do.
Everyone has a favourite, it's impossible to pinpoint a particular one. They were brilliant, almost 50 years later and they're still being spoken about like the show was yesterday!
It feels like yesterday when I watch them! My three older brothers and I watched them so much! We all have different favorite episodes. Mine is The Interview! They were completely brilliant! 😂❤
It was amusing how relatable the terms woody and tinny were, even though I had never heard those used to describe words before, but I wouldn't say that this was their best sketch ever.
Graham to daughter after upsetting her with the word "tinny": "Sorry, old horse." Eric Idle (mother), after doing the same mistake: "Sorry, old beast."
***** I found it funny, but more than funny smile worthy and insightful, and thats an essential ingredient of good comedy. There are more hilarious bits from them admittedly but I love this one
***** I found it funny at a visceral level, I do love language based humour and love python. I'm not saying it was brilliant, the ending its quite weak, but most of it I liked it a lot
Imagine it being 2024, and people still using "triggered" incorrectly to denote "anger" or "offense". This comment doesn't "trigger" me, it angers and saddens me, because intentional ignorance is still strong.
Sound symbolism (more or less) and class parody. Perfectly combined with their usual surreal-ness. Also "I'm afraid Mrs. Vermin-Jones appears to have passed on". What a blow for her.
Ever since I first saw this sketch in 1974 I've occasionally said 'gooorn' to cheer myself up. Having shown this sketch to my daughter today, she finally understands why.
Vin Kermit Diesel Who cares. What's really important, the sense of humour of very many viewers was left entirely uninjured thanks to its convenient absence.
Always nice to relive some of the heritage Monty Python has produced. Now I think of it, the heritage and how far back it goes: When I was finishing my thesis at university, we used the original MacIntosch at the faculty. Somebody had replaced the system sounds with Monty Python samples (Eject diskette -> "Bring out your dead", Undo -> "I'm going to have to shoot you now, Delete file -> "This is definitely a dead parrot" etc). They were already legendary at that time... That was 1990!!! 33 years ago 🙂
I love so many of their pieces. They were on when I moved out of my folks and into the party house with a friend. A bunch of us would gather for Monty Python Sunday evenings for the show and get immersed in it. Sometimes do the skits. Good days u
I get it Jamie. I grew up with Monty Python here in Australia. No stranger to the English absurd sense of humour. They have hundreds of sketches that are much funnier than that one, that's all.
This was the last season after John Cleese had left. Totally embarr4ssing not just their worst sketch but one of the worst in history by anyone ever anywhere.
Calling this "Monty Python's best sketch ever " is like calling Rocky Road the best ice cream ever. No matter what flavor I'm ultimately handed, I'm going to be happy with it.
I love this sketch because i can relate to it. I also have words that i like to randomly say for no reason, just because they make me feel better. I think that might be a mild case of tourretes syndrome or something.
I love how at 2:28 after he fires the gun the maid in black is startled then has to stop herself from laughing. It looks like she goes again when he has the bucket of water thrown on him.
This bit has its moments, but best Python sketch ever? No Spanish Inquisition? No Argument Clinic? No Fish-Slapping Dance? No Ministry of Silly Walks? No Nudge, Nudge? And those are just off the top of my head, with plenty of others.
Docktor Jim Carol Cleveland if I remember rightly, they usually got her to play young female parts, the python's themselves usually stuck to the old hag parts. She was also in the marriage counseling sketch.
And I had always wondered why Graham didnt aim when he fired his gun. I love his phrase "well you gotta come to terms with these things." And Eric Idle in drag looks amazingly pretty. I also love it when Simpkins sings Mrs Vermin Jones a song and she croaks. These guys were brilliant and this is one of my favorite M.P. sketches. Thank you for posting it.
Their best sketch ever? Hardly, but it is a wonderful example of their unique insanity that makes Monty Python unmatched by any other form of sketch comedy troupes ever. Pure genius. Pure Python!
@@dougaldouglas8842 My two favourites were the Whizzo Box of Assorted Chocolates (the ones with Rams bladder cup AND Cockroach Cluster), clearly based in Black Magic, and Ken Shabby wanting to marry an aristo's daughter. (" clean out public lavatories....after two years they give me a broom").
@@alangiles2763 Erm. All were my zany favourites, zany as hell. Its nice to find others that found, and find Monty Python amusing, a real just let go and let things proceed, especially an attack upon the upper crust, just how pompous they are.
Not all sketches have to have you doubled over in laughter. This one just provides some light amusement. For those who don't get it, it's old money with nothing better to do than sit around and muse on how words sound and make them feel.
How have I never seen this!? I thought I had seen every Monty Python sketch, including the never before released ones that were eventually released for CD-i back when I worked at Philips Media. But somehow, I've never seen this one. Brilliant!
I love how Monty Python are so hugely popular with most people not realizing that when you take away their most famous skits, a lot of the Flying Circus was actually stiff like this. Lots of circular dialogue and targeted upending of expectations. Honestly, I don't even know why this skit makes me laugh, but it does.
I can’t help but feel a lot of their stuff was plain banal... not criticism of the creative process, more a wonder “Life in England makes even this hilarious” 😮
I still say the Spanish Inquisition and “give her the comfy pillows” is one of the funniest and most memorable Monty Python skits. The rank absurdity contrasted with British uptight stuffiness and classism is what ignited that humor into explosive laughter. Alas that era is long since gone. Money has made whores out of us all. Honor and propriety we bid thee adieu.
Imagine being so rich you spend your time saying words and looking into them, and only having the problems of not liking a word. Especially when at that time there were people fighting the Second World War. Definitely the best sketch
I mean, the link at the end was a bit weak, but this is still a dreadfully funny sketch. "Sketch." Nasty, tinny sort of word, isn't it? Perfectly dreadful.
