the best is you get so used to the background music and when he shouts "SHUT THAT BLOODY DANCING UP!" it catches you offguard and forget its even playing. It makes it about 10x more funnier.
(Time to reply to a thirteen year old comment I suppose.) I'd say it's also arguably just as good on a rewatch after not having seen it for quite some time, as then you remember that he yells at them to stop, but don't remember when exactly, so the whole time you're noticing the music even more and waiting for him to snap.
A part we don't think about much is when Mr. Wensleydale starts to tell him one they actually have -- finally ending the customer's futility, but he interrupts with. "No! I'm keen to guess." So he cooperates with his own torment.
@@BakedRBeans Apparently, Reginald Francis Cheese changed his name some years before John was born. But now that you've posted this, I keep reading "Cleese" as "Cheese", damn you!
@@BakedRBeans Somewhat of a coincidence; I haven't listened to the radio for years (I prefer listening to music that I have downloaded), but this morning, as I was driving to work, I put the radio on. I received the car in September, and haven't used the radio, so it just came on to Radio 2. Guess who was on? And literally, within a few seconds of tuning in, he was explaining that his father got sick of people taking the mickey out of his name (I think from 1915, when he joined the army and fought in France for 3 years) and changed it from Cheese to Cleese. John Cleese then said that people at school never seemed to hear his name properly, anyway, and thought that maybe it was "Creeves" or something similar.
Since hearing this sketch all those years ago, I have made it my life's work to try each of these cheeses at least once. Surprisingly, most of these cheeses actually exist.
In a nutshell. And I thought to myself, 'a little fermented curd will do the trick', so, I curtailed my Walpoling activites, sallied forth, and infiltrated your place of purveyance to negotiate the vending of some cheesy comestibles! Come again? I want to buy some cheeeeese!
I was in a small town in Texas, walking down the Main Street, when I saw a sign for “Cheeses of the World.” I crossed the street to look in the window. It was either recently shut down or just about to newly open. It was closed, all of the shelving was up, and there were zero “cheesy comestibles” on the premises. I could only laugh heartily to myself. I really wanted to share that moment with someone. I felt like it was a setup.
@@portcullis5622 My God, man! That Australian duck-billed platypus cheese sounds exceedingly rare! Unobtainable, even! The Queen would have first taste!
This is 1 of those sketches that didn't quite make their featured "greatest hits" ...but in my opinion just about as good as anything they've done. A vintage performance by John Cleese rattling off all the different types of cheese and a well written/performed sketch by the 1 and only original team of Monty Python. "Venezualan Beaver cheese"
The coffee table book *Monty Python's Flying Circus: All the Words* (a collection of annotated transcripts from each season) had a footnote regarding Venezuelan Beaver Cheese; "If only".
My dad owned a cheese shop in the 1960’s - 80’s and two young chaps waited for a quiet spell without customers, and performed this sketch for their delighted audience of one. Pop was a loyal Python fan, and he retold this anecdote long after he retired.
The "Licensed for public dancing" sigh at 0:08 makes me laugh every time! It's so easy to miss, but so ridiculous! Who would dance at a cheese shop? XD
The thing I love the most about Monty Python, is that its 40 years old, and we're still laughing out asses of at it. Who knew jokes with no punchline could be so funny.
Hello... I am messaging you from the future. Please tell the world this in 2009, the following : "THERE IS A BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS LABROTORY IN WUHAN CHINA, CO-RUN BY THE AMERICANS". The world needs to know this.....THEY MUST BE UNCOVERED AND STOPPED BEFORE THE END OF JANUARY 2020 ! .....May God be with you !
And we'll laugh for the next...n years! These guys are absolutely amazing and I think they will never be forgotten. I wish we had them again, especially in these situations....
"Well it's certainly uncontaminated by cheese." Arguably the greatest line from the TV series with "It is an ex-parrot," in close contention. Of course Star Trek: Voyager had an episode where some alien cheese infected their computer so I guess maybe the writers were Python fans.
"I thought to myself: A little fermented curd could do the trick. So I curtailed my Walpoling activities, sallied forth and infiltrated your place of purveyance to negotiate the vending of some cheesy comestibles." Monty Python has some of the most ingenious lines in history.
vonzigle 1:20 John Marwood Cleese AKA Mr. Mousebender: I like a nice dance you forced to! 1:23 Viking: Anyway.... 1:24 Mr. Henry Arthur Wensleydale: Who said that? *LOL ROFL!!*
I still think the funniest aspect of this sketch is the sheer pretentiousness of Cleese's character. Describing yourself stopping reading a book by Walpole as "curtailing my Walpoling activities" is such a creative piece of writing. :)
Skibz778 Cleese has a gift for self-deprecating pretentiousness... If you didn't know this was supposed to be comedy, you would hear him and think: "Is he making fun of himself? Or is he really THAT MUCH of an asshole?"😁
How do you say you paused in reading any British author? Maybe I am dumb, but I can't think of any other way to communicate it. You sound like a leftist.
The way John Cleese's character speaks at the start of the sketch reminds me of the character Bernard Cribbins played in the Inspectors episode of Fawlty Towers, Using a big vocabulary.
My favorite part is how they fake you out with the Camembert, making us think there's about to be a punchline involving how incredibly runny it is, only for the cat to eat it. It's why I love Monty Python; they throw curveballs like that.
onpsxmember - it's a subversion (done well), in that you expect him to say something like: "oh! It's run off!" (Which is also possibly a pun.) The cat is completely unconnected.
That is the joke. Cats drink milk and the cat was never shown. The cat was just drinking the milk he asked for under the counter. Also Czechislovakian cheese if amazing.
It continues with him going off into the sunset like the ending of a cowboy movie, with music swelling up and (if I can recall) the title card "Rogue Cheddar" or something like that.
That's the genius of Monty Python. They avoid a lot of the expected structure of the comedy sketch, often including the punchline, and leave you giggling and at the same time wondering if it really was funny. On repeated viewings (often many repetitions), it just gets funnier as you listen to the skill with which the dialogue is sculpted.
" Negotiate the vending of some cheesy comestibles...." LOL A line delivered in all it's possible glory by the incomparable John Cleese . I never tire of these sketches!
... its glory requires no apostrophe since the possessive pronoun is devoid of aforementioned punctuation due to it not being the bloody contraction of "it is". 😁
@@SpeccyMan Thanks for pointing that out. Things like that matter. So many people make that error (or the converse omitting of an apostrophe) due to haste or not noticing that our friend Otto Kerect has taken an action without our permission.
Dennis Chiu Its a quote from The Good the Bad and the Ugly my doods, its what Clint Eastwood says when he is with Tuco watching the Union storm the Rebel bridge. Thats why he put on the cowboy hat.
Nevermind my dudes it appears I was wrong. Although he says something similar (“never seen so men needlessly wasted yada yada”) it isnt the quote or anything directly resembling it. Oof
"One of my favorite sketches with John. I don't think once either on television or on stage, was I ever able to get through it with a straight face". -Michael Palin
It's a good sketch, bordering on great, but the 'Cheese Shop' game in the Brand New Monty Python Bok is a true classic. One player is the cheese shop owner, the other player is the customer. Game goes like this: 1) Shop owner and customer exchange pleasantries. 2) Shop owner asks how he can help. 3) Customer asks for a variety of cheese. 4) Shop owner offers an excuse for the lack of said cheese in stock (a simple "No" is okay, or numerous variations upon such. however, points are awarded for creative excuses - "Not since the Great Moroccan Curd Shortage of 1978, I'm afraid Sir" and so forth). 5) Customer asks for a *different* variety of cheesy comestible. 6) Shop owner offers a *different* excuse for not having any of said fromage in stock. 7) Game continues in this fashion until one player either a) cannot think of a new cheese/excuse, or b) repeats a cheese/excuse. Great at parties. Can empty entire front rooms.
A friend and I used to play a game a bit like that. A kind of 'celebrity tennis'. I think it started with 'Brians'. One of us would name someone relatively famous (or at least known to both of us, such as ex-teachers) who was called Brian, and the other had to respond. The winner was the player that got the last Brian. 'Brians' and 'Bobs' could be quite long matches, whereas 'Quentins' was usually a 2-2 draw (after "Crisp", "Blake", "Letts" and "Tarantino"). I knew of someone with the splendid name of Quentin Goggs, but was not allowed that one! As you can imagine, the long winter evenings used to simply fly by!
I doubt very long, as his capacity to memorize and deliver long and challenging dialogue is -- dare I say -- unmatched ... please find and view the "It's the Arts" episode and marvel at Mr Cleese's flawless, rapid-fire recitation of the "Greatest Name in Baroque Music", Johann Gambol Putty [deVon, etc.] (",,, of Ulm.")
50 years after this sketch appeared on TV, I bought some Sage Derby at the Christmas market just because I recognised its name from this sketch. Now THAT'S the power of product placement! XD
Python sketches have no punchlines per se (a fact they not only admit but exploit to hilarious effect in the scene after "Argument Clinic" for example); rather, they create scenarios that are inherently absurd (a cheeseless cheese shop) and reveal that fact throughout the sketch. The dancers are another absurdity that builds as the sketch goes on. A classic example of Cleese's "thesaurus" sketches, which are always a hoot.
The best ever. Had a version on record in the 70s that was even funier. The timing was just brilliant. IMO this is the best sketch far more than the dead parrot
two classic understated moments in this sketch I could listen to over and over again... The thoughtful pause that Michael Palin give after "Double Gloucester ?", and then "she, sir" after "the cat's eaten it, Has he ?"
lol, i can`t go through a grocery store without checking out the cheese section and the variety they have. my favorite quote in the sketch was ` predictable really, i suppose. it was an act of pure optimism to have posed the question in the first place` classic python.
Yes the tesco cheese 🧀 counter literally reeks of cheese you shant go there if you're fancying a shag whilst having your cheeses toasted on steltons triful morning day and the night before the morning I had to go get home and get a little more to get to it and I'll get back to you laterals the afternoon is so much to say about it I hope you get your way to fix it and then I can get to it again. I will do it for tomorrow afternoon or if you have a few things I will need to get some stuff out you..🐀🐔🎶
The character of Basil Fawlty was actually based on a real life hotel owner. Back in the 70's the Pythons stayed in a hotel somewhere in England where they were filming. Apparently the owner was as rude and obnoxious as you can get and so Cleese wrote a series around him. There were only 12 episodes but as Rhissanna rightly says, they were excrutiatingly funny to the point of making you squirm watching them. If you have never watched Fawlty Towers then get yourself the set.
Benny Hill, Monty Python and Marty Feldman -- true comedic geniuses! In the very early 1970's we didn't have many TV channels and most went off the air before midnight. Luckily, my family lived in Michigan and we received Ontario, Canada TV broadcasts late at night. That's when Hill's and Python's shows were broadcast. Good times...!
I don't recall as much scantily clad women in varying stages of lingerie undress running around in Python skits so much as Pythons in drag, but both shows featured some hilarious songs and skits.
That guy REALLY knows cheese! I was always curious about Red Leicester, because it was his first choice. For a long time I never saw any, but finally saw some at Whole Foods. It's $ 9.75 a pound!!! The little piece I tried was hard, but good. Supposedly it's really good melted, too.
I figured I would search again as it's been 4 years since your comment and we've all gone through the pandemic and the current inflationary situation, so I found this at Trader Joe's site: Rutland Red Leicester Cheese $11.99/pound.
I’m a starting to see a pattern with the most famous MP:FC sketches. John Cleese is on one side or the other, on an exchange of people unable or unwilling to properly provide what’s been advertised. Cheese, *living* parrots, silly walks, arguments, etc
I looked up Illchester on Wikipedia after this and found a slight anomaly. When typing in the name of the eponymous town, wikipedia referred to it as a "human settlement" instead of just "town" or "village". The peculiarity thereof led me to take a map of England and try random other smaller towns in England but my search concluded: none (of the small dozen I searched) but Illchester is referred to as "human settlement"
Aaaaahhhh! The cat ate it! 🧀🐱🧀 Classic Python! Maybe John should change his name to John Cheese!😂 Blessings and kindest regards David from Australia. 🌏 🙄☝️
In Britain we have to do an exam on cheeses at age 12. Every child must pass this exam. Or else they are held back a year and will be 12 years old indefinitely.
Outside of " . . . we already got one . . ." my favorite line in all of Pythondom is in this sketch. "Well, it's certainly uncontaminated by cheese." I'm convinced the Star Trek: Voyager episode where the computer's bio gel packs get "sick" from the fumes off Neelix's cheese was inspired by this sketch.
I just got my new bouzouki delivered today. Actually, it was this sketch that got me interested in bouzouki music to begin with... I look forward to learning to play the instrument.
