Monty Python - Summarize Proust Competition Uncensored 

'Golf's not very popular round here.' Kills me every time.

A closeted man attempts to recount his childhood, how he became able to write, his several female lovers who he was always jealous of, all the gossip he ever heard, and how events and time change people and art. Boom give me a prize.

Count on Graham to play a character who sounds entirely dignified and serious, then to drop something like "[My hobbies outside of reading Proust are] strangling animals, golf, and masturbation."

A friend once said to me "Summarize Proust!" and while I understood he was making a joke I did not know the Python skit and so responded "A guy ate a cookie, kind of brought back old times."

I'm reading Proust at the moment because of Monty Python, and I have not been disappointed

I don’t care how long it takes them to get through it - I’d pay good money to hear a men’s a cappella group sing summaries of a LOT of classic novels.

I've read the entire thing twice and I couldn't even begin to do it. I love his writing style and his manic verbosity. The torrent of words and the passion underlying them. The actual plot is almost beside the point, to be honest. His talent for self-expression and his way with words is so rich and eloquent that it doesn't matter to me WHAT he is writing about. I focus on HOW he wrote about whatever subject he happened to be discussing even if that subject was of little relevance or interest to me personally ... How did he write about everything? In a word: Beautifully.

"Proust in his first book wrote about, wrote about..." my favourite bit :D

I met this woman online who was a Proust fanatic and could tell you everything about him and his works. I figured she must have seen this sketch but I sent her this clip anyway and, surprisingly, she had not. Her response was, "OMG!! That was freaking hilarious!!"

"Man eats pastry and remembers stuff"

A friend of mine told me that she had to take a French exam on Proust, that she hadn't prepared, and that this sketch helped her -- though I hardly see how that could be true. P'r'aps the "strangling animals, golf and masturbating" line scared her prof. into giving her an A.

"Strangling animals, golf, and masturbating." "Well, he must have let himself down there a bit. Golf's not very popular round here."

I received the complete Monty Python's flying circus DVD as a gift.I have been a fan of the show since the 70's when it was first broadcast in the states. This particular sketch was and is one of my favorites. the DVD put out by A&E television states that it is unedited but the punch line is missing the masturbation.So I guess strangling animals and golf are alright with A&E.just no wanking.I just wanted to alert fans to this weaselly behavior .

We had Proust summarised in evening dress, but not swimwear. Great sketch though.

Just finished writing an essay on 'Swann's Way'... 3.20am in Uni library. Had to watch this again. I should have just submitted Graham Chapman's lines over again to make up the word count.

Yes, it really was Bill Bailey. As a then 8 year old he was quite the prodigy when it came to television set lighting.

This sketch is uncensored on the UK DVDs, but sadly all the other "lost" bits (Python fans will know what I mean) have not been restored, probably because they no longer exist.

Sheer comedy genius. One of my favourites from them.

For those who labored through "Swann's Way" and then know the terror that there are 6 more volumes to go

In high school me and my mates would play cassette tapes of this and other sketches in the hallways during breaks. Me mate would always crank the volume to max at the hobbies line ;-) I made the tapes off Monty Python vinyl records....had a bunch, including "Contractual Obligations", "Another Monty Python Record", "Live at Dury Lane" , "Previous Record Album" , "Instant Record Collection". These were all uncensored, including this very Proust skit....albums sold in Canada in the 1970's. They, for the most part, are different performances than what was showing on the actual TV episodes....so there are nuanced differences in the scripting, the comedic timings and verbalizations...

A worthy winner.

I'm drawn to women who deserve a Proust trophy.

The funniest thing about this sketch is that strangling animals is perfectly fine by the censors, but masturbation? Well. That's another thing entirely!

If you're calling the author of À la recherche du temps perdu a looney, I shall have to ask you to step outside!

Why does this crack me up every single time I watched it since it was aired? Only Monty Python can do that. Geniuses.

I was in Scholastic Bowl in High School. I tried pulling this challenge on my teammates. Their reply? In perfect unison, a resounding "PROUST SUCKS."

ya gotta love the way Chapman looks stunned and disoriented after failing to fully 'encapsulate'...

One cannot argue with the logic of the awarding of the prize

dammit she always wins.

A few interesting facts I just noticed: 1. The choir were the only ones to get 15 seconds - the two others got 20; 2. The showy music at the end is the same as in At Last The 1948 Show opening :)

We got the uncensored version one in Canada on TV in the 70s.

I have the only recently released flying circus box set and that's uncensored :D I was so glad to be able to hear it as it should be.

Ah, I wasn't aware the new set had it uncensored. That's good to hear.

The thing that makes you think is why they censored "masturbating" and yet kept in "strangling animals" lol

A worthy winner, I'd say.

It looks like Proust was a fan of Moliere, and that he referenced him in his works fairly often. "Le Malade Imaginaire" is a Moliere play.

Ha, they've got the name of the sixth volume wrong. It's not "The Sweet Chear Gone" (and what's a "chear", anyway, other than a misspelling of "cheer"), it's "The Sweet Cheat Gone".

Golfs not very popular round here....classic line!!!

The Python chaps would never have spelled Summarise with a Z.

Never seen this before. I love Proust. Love Python.

And twenty minutes of episode follows on after the competition, with the Summarising Proust Choir having a second go at the end.

I can win the Summarize Proust contest. "It's boring."

I taped every episode off of PBS also, (Even the German language ones). The next time PBS ran MP, all the nauty bits wereblurred and the bad words disappeared. PROGRESS! :p

Where is the swimsuit round?

When an American TV network aired a Python special in the 1970's, even thought it was at 11:30 PM et, they insisted on bleeping the words "naughty bits".

It's what Proust would have wanted.

It's about damn TIME somebody uploaded the uncensored version! Thank you!! Any chance of uploading the 'Army General As Clown' sketch in it's entirety?

One can imagine why the powers that be thought they should censor references to self abuse. but surprisingly they left the golf reference in.

For Proust fans, author Shelby Foote of "The Civil War" fame was also a fan. He said that he'd had read it 9 times (he then near 80 yo) as reward for accomplishments across his lifetime/career.

"Proust in his first book wrote about, wrote about..." Superb.

"Proust in his first book wrote about, wrote about.."

I can’t believe I’d never seen this one before. Genius.

English humour. No country can surpass it. Long live Monty Pythons!

Since Eric Idle comes from Wolverhampton, nearish places sometimes get a mention in Python sketches: Bromsgrove and Droitwich, for example.

I mean, sometimes in my head I might start harmonising 'Proust in his first book wrote about wrote about' but that only goes offa seeing repeats in the 80's. I'm only 46 ffs and I only like one of Mr Barrett's hobbies.

"Golf's not very popular around here." XD

Bloke smells a bun. Gets nostalgic.

He just shoves him off stage. I love it.

I agree: golf is a filthy hobby!

Now i know where Swansway the band got their name

“….golf isn’t very popular round here….”😂

I’ve never even heard of Proust. Now I have to go look it up. Oh, and I like the contest winner 😊

When it was aired in Brazil in the early 1990s (Multishow cable station) it was uncensored. I remember this clearly.

Graham's contribution is pretty much verbatim from the Encyclopedia Britannica entry for Marcel Proust.

What a coincidence...that's how I plan to spend the upcoming holiday weekend.

According to the MP "Just the Words" script site, it's "la malade imaginaire de recondition et de toute surveillance est bientôt la même chose"

Bless you for posting this!

what would I do without Monty Python?

For some reason, the judges don't seem to be amused.

I'm french, but I don't understand what he say...

thx for the non-censored version!

Other than the masturbating part, I like how they make such a big deal on a French novelist which many Americans may not really know about

Yay! I have the same hobbies as Harry Baggat. (Except for golf)

Think I'll have to read the book to appreciate this sketch. Is it long?

@Tareltonlives I wouldn't consider Proust obscure.

Funny sketch, very funny for those who actually read 'A la recherche du temps perdu'. Thanks for posting!

I just want to thank you for this post I recently purchased the python box set and was livid when I got to this sketch witch iv'e known by heart since i was 12 and found it censored it's not mentioned on the box anywhere that the collection is in any way censored there's a&e all over the place witch is strange because the circus predates cable tv by decades but to anyone else who wants to buy the box set look around don't get taken don't buy a&e's one very truly yours mike two sheds

Golf's not very popular around here 😊

« La malade imaginaire de recondition et de toute surveillance est bientôt la même chose. »

I think Australia's Region 4 DVD has *that* line intact.

This was on british tv in the 70s and they couldn't do this on tv now in the states.

Omar Sharif

This is a basic look at why Graham Chapman is my favorite Python. Also, those are some fantastic sweater puppies.

this is one of my favorites for whatever reason haha.

Proust rarely went out. All that writing, I expect. Jean Cocteau said that he 'had the look of an electric light bulb left on during the day'. And I remember a 1960s photograph of a cat looking at a bookshelf, captioned, 'No Proust! No Sartre! This place is a mental slum!' I prefer Python - It's all I can take.

I never understood why did they censored that part where Mr. Chapman says "masturbating". Did they really think that strangulation of animals is not worse than masturbation? :D

8 people are Marcel Proust.

What's the point in having a panel of judges if the host can single-handedly award the winning prize?

Bong! Start again! /clown waves/

have read proust. the impressive thing is the attempt itself.

The 'strangling animals, golf, and masturbating' line will always be one of my all-time favourite Monty Python lines. It's the contrast of a despicable act, a (at the time) highly taboo word, and the most bland and inoffensive pastime known to man. They were also right to put golf in the middle, not sure why. It wouldn't have been as effective at the beginning or at the end. Apparently the BBC were shocked and appalled though, and I think I remember Eric Idle once saying they even bleeped it out when it first aired. But not the part about strangling animals, rather it was the masturbation part that offended them! So when I first joined facebook many years ago and was asked to fill in my hobbies, I thought I'd pay homage to one of my favourite Python sketches, and put these three hobbies. My sister saw it, laughed, and told our mother about it. She then rang me and said 'What's this about you masturbating?' So it turns out my mother has the same skewed view on right and wrong as the BBC, and lives in a world where it's better to make a monkey suffer horrendously than to spank it.

this is the UNCENSORED version......LOVE IT!

Those were happy days in England, when we were free to spell summarize with a Z!

Could you imagine the BBC making anything like this nowadays 😂

GOD i love them!

Most Americans have no idea who Proust is. I first saw this sketch on PBS in the mid 70s when I was 10 and I certainly didn't. I only learned about him out of curiosity for this sketch!

hey -- this is the uncensored version -- kool!

This would not work for us Americans, most of whom have never heard of Proust.

Don't even THINK about it! Now that you've said it...it could happen.

Who else would run the end credits four minutes into an episode?