from Monty Python's Flying Circus Season 1 - Episode 02 - Sex and Violence Recorded 30-08-69 , Aired 12-10-69 I'm slowly uploading the entire Flying Circus series... Got any requests?
Well, that's the case. I just hinted that furries wear animal costumes. So I think the part where men wearing mice costumes seems too accurate for furries out there.
Ivan Canak No, it is. From wikipedia: "The deviant way of life explored in 'The Mouse Problem' is an obvious parody of the secretive lives and social condemnation of gay men in the 1960s, and the sketch itself mimics the film and interview techniques used in serious television documentary exposés on the subject. Eric Zorn of the Chicago Tribune notes its similarity to a real 1967 documentary, CBS Reports: The Homosexuals. Chapman himself, who wrote the sketch, was gay." Also, the sketch was released a few months after the Stonewall riots occured.
@@elijahFree2000 Honestly, it's the funniest trick in the book. That's why a lot of SNL's best hosts over the years (e.g. Christopher Walken, Adam Driver) are serious actors, who can keep a straight face while spouting outrageous lines without winking to the audience. Alec Baldwin started off that way when he was a serious actor back in the 1980s - "Second prize: a set of steak knives" - but then decided he was more of a comic actor and I no longer find him as funny (especially his horrible Trump impersonation - there are so many better ones).
It is very funny, when you watch it. If you have written it yourself, and edited it several times, had production meetings about it, assembled/constructed the set, cast all the actors, fitted all the costumes, set up the lights, memorized the lines, rehearsed the scene several times, filmed the scene a few times, honestly, the jokes are just words at that point. It's much the same reason that actors in a horror movie are not actually afraid, and actors in romance are not actually in love. Yes, Mr. Cleese is an amazing talent, and I am a lifelong fan, keeping a straight face is, when you are in the scene, remarkably effortless.
@@aquamarine99911 The best Trump impression is the one by the horrible little "man" himself, though lately even he is not as amusing as senility overtakes him. SAD!
This was THE sketch that pushed me from 'I don't know if I get this python stuff' to a realization that I would need to see everything they'd ever made. So happy to have found it here...
"I mean, how many of us can honestly say that at one time or another he hasn't set fire to some great public building? I know I have." I have always loved that line!
To paraphrase a quote people use about The Simpsons, "these comedians didn't predict the future, we just haven't improved anything as a society for the past several decades"
Michael's 'what the hell?' faces when talking to the psychiatrist are brilliant :) 'How many of us can honestly say that at some point we haven't felt sexually attracted to mice? I know I have.'
Knowing about Chapman what we know today and what the sketch is about I doubt it was an accident that he played the role of the sympathetic phychiatrist/magician.
Yes, a lot of odd behaviour is now considered normal, and that demonstrates how far morality has fallen. Who'd have thought back in 1970 when this series was made, that two men or two women could be "married", and that the public would ever accept that farce as normal ? But via leftist social engineering, they have.
I understand parody alright, as this ( obviously ) was. However my point is that what they parodied then, is what is reality today. Can you therefore, grasp the meaning of.... irony ?
"Look at arson! I mean how many of us can honestly say that at one time or another, he hasn't set fire to some great public building. I know I have!" :D
I don't understand why so many people here think this has to do with furries. It's very obviously about homosexuality, and substituting "wanting to be a mouse" was only done for comedic effect. And frankly, while others here laugh at the over-the-top performance of the other Pythons, I think this is in fact a terrific acting job by John Cleese here.
Well, it's obvious that attitudes towards homosexuality were the INTENDED target of satire, but you can't deny that there's a certain interesting parallel to be drawn here. People have a party and "putting on mice costumes" is certainly reminiscent of the common media portrayal of furries.
This skit was written before 1969. The furry fandom became popular in the 1980s. While there has been pre-furry fandom furry pornography since the mid 60s, I doubt that it would have been any sort of inspiration for using mice in place of homosexuality for satirical effect. I think this should clear things up.
It could be drugs, homosexuality or furries .. and well.. many furries are homosexual . so..well. In the end it is just a joke that has become true kinda. And it is not the first time this happened to them ^^
Agreed. This skit is really talking about gay culture and using "mice" in place of gay people for comedic effect. It has nothing to do with furries, which weren't even a thing in 1969.
A bit of trivia - in the original transmission, when Arthur Jackson's name and address was revealed, a telephone number was also revealed (belonging to one David Frost). Frostie was not amused by the joke, hence the sudden cut in this subsequent transmission.
@@BossyGuyMike And who employed Cleese and Chapman as writers/performers on At Last the 1948 Show. I have always been curious about their feelings toward Frost. They made fun of him a lot, but at the same time there seem to have been fairly close professional ties.
this sketch is targeted at the documentaries made in the 1960s about contentious subjects. It is especially aimed at one which focused on the Gay scene after decrimilisation. the way the sketch is done is how the documentaries portrayed their subjects. some of the lines are even taken from the documentaries with Homosexual/Gay being substituted by Mouse. It is a really interesting parody and is funny because it highlights the idiocy of the original Programmes x
I reckon that Dutch mouse parties take place in windmills in Amsterdam. There you put on a pair of clogs as well as the mouse skin and go Clip Clop Clippety Clop on the stairs.
Well, I've been to mouse parties and there is a great amount of peer pressure in to becoming a mouse. Generally the mice are people with relative family issues.
@@premanadi The big problem with clipping these sketches and viewing them in isolation is that you lose the context of little details like that. I've seen RU-vid comments from people who seem to be coming to Python for the first time complaining about the aimlessness and lack of structure in the sketches, and they don't remember how the links and running jokes held everything together.
One of my favorite sketches ever! John Cleese as an awkward shy man is flipping brilliant. And I love the concept. Trying to breach the subject of perception of homosexuality by displaying something completely different, but that is just as baffling and repellent to the public in general at the time. The fact that they had no idea of what furries were back then is just a huge added bonus.
talented actors. all of em especially cleese and palin. Flyins circus is the best thing ever made on tv. Best humor ever tasted. Too bad 4th season couldnt make it.
The sketch was obviously a commentary about public attitudes towards homosexuality, and in no way could they have been aware of the furry fandom. But that doesn't mean that the points it makes could not just as well be applied to furries as well. It's a sketch that challenges the viewer to consider accepting something that may seem weird and unappealing to them, as long as it is shown to be truly harmless, and that it provides comfort, pleasure, and a chance for group identity to their practitioners.
toonbat It is very interesting how this clever analogy for homosexuality that Monty Python cooked up ironically ended up being very similar to an actual literal subculture that emerged decades later.
+Rabbi Herschel Lieberman-Bergblattsteinowitz Homosexuality per se had little to do with the spread of HIV in the USA. Homosexual men, compared to heterosexual men, had sex with more partners and little was done in the way of prophylactics for STIs. It should be noted that worldwide, HIV is primarily spread via heterosexual sex.
HUUUUUURRRR Then again, HIV has not really been much of a problem in the USA. On the other hand, HIV has been absolutely devastating in parts of Africa. For this we can honestly blame the catholic church for reprimanding the use of condoms/contraceptives (incidentally this also did not help with their overpopulation problem).
Back in the last century , when Monty Python was in it's first presentation on PBS ... i once saw a commercial on Late Night tv from Kraft Cheese that directly played on "_When You Have Your Mouse Party_", etc. and i Never Saw It Again !! Tell me i'm not dreaming 😵💫
Thanks for reminding people of that. The social setting at the time these were made is so important to remember. Too often, people (particularly Americans) think Python was just indulging in meaningless silliness, when a lot of it was social commentary through humor.
Graham Chapman the man who wrote it and played the shrink, came out in the 70's, the only known homosexual in Monty Python. In real life the preacher would most certainly not air the view that gay love was ok if he wanted to keep his job. And just as not all furies want to be mice/foxes etc some men just like to dress up as women on occasion and don't all want to be women or date other men.
Well, he was an Anglican preacher. The Church of England doesn't have any official policy on gays, so it's really up to each individual priest to make the call.
@FatherWindsorMcShane There's also the question of how long that laughter stays canned. In short, skits being laughed at when many of the people recorded laughing are long dead. Which is a grim prospect in itself when you understand the principle of canned laughter.
@neoprankster The sketch is a parody of Panorama's usual format. A lot of the MP sketches are absurdist parodies of well-known TV programmes of the time, like the BBC2 discussion show "Late Night Line Up"
This heavily parodies documentaries of the time about homosexuality, especially a particular 60 minutes episode. And it was written by a gay man. Furries came later. Although, I don't really get why people hate furries so much. No one's actually having sex with animals here It's just a thing that makes certain people feel comfortable, like how some people just feel better in the clothes of the opposite sex. And furry fandom is relatively harmless, as it's not usually a sexual fetish.
Well, it could've been, as comedians usually choose words and actions wisely and are usually clever. Anyways, it's quite funny XD Gotta love Monty Python!
Speaking neutrally, between furries and haters, some of the comments are astoundingly stupid. The rhetoric in some of the comments is honestly worrying. I quote: "You deserve to be stoned." Jesus H Christ!
