I worked on this sketch as a trainee camera operator and unfortunately when Graham Chapman fired the gun 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.
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!
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.
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 TH-cam 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.
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.
I wouldn't say it's their best sketch, but it's absolutely one of their most underrated. It's definitely one I watch again and again, and I always find it funny. Chapman's facial expressions are priceless here.
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! 😂❤
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.
I think some have taken the sketch as a model of upper class decline. You’re taking yourselves a bit too seriously. The whole point is in the absurdity.
Best expressions: Graham Chapman Best vocalist: Carol Cleveland Best cross dresser: Eric Idle Winner: The servants keeping straight faces throughout the sketch!
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.
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").
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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 🙂
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 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.
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.
***** 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
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.
For those who don't get the humour, perhaps it might help to suggest that the Python team's approach is sometimes almost Dada, that is to say, absurdist. The underlying theme, if there be one, is that the monied classes have so little to do, that they have time to ponder on the synesthetic attributes of random words while libido rises or the desire for a bath to kill time becomes overwhelming. That, the various ridiculous salutations ("sorry, old horse/old chap" etc. to a female) and Chapman's lubricious delivery (reminiscent of Rowan Atkinson's "school register" delivery in the Secret Policeman's Ball) plus the sudden shock elements of the shotgun and the bellowed song-verse all conspire to create a surreal scenario that Lewis Carrol and Edward Lear would have empathised with. But to explain humour is to castrate it. I for one, just roll with the absurdity and enjoy the drunken, dream-like illogicality of it. Wonderfully liberating, I think. Stop making sense, after all.......
This sketch is the very reason I switched from using my first name 'Tim" - so tiny, and use my middle name Gordon - so woody, so very woody. Also I play sitar the gourd based long neck lute of North India - Gordy on gourds! And is this why I nearly changed my name to Ocelot?
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 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.
DEFINITELY Monty Python's best sketch ever! I was peeing in a bucket laughing at it years ago, & have been looking for it & couldn't find it. Until now! 😸👍
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.
This sketch is priceless...and probably a sarcastic take on English aristocracy. I'm sure this scene has been played out in real life many thousands (millions?) of times. I have to wonder what goes through the minds of the bevy of servants standing in the background. hahaaa
These guys are (and in Graham's case, were) very intelligent cats. These sorts of sketches, where they went into language and word jokes, were some of their best. I'd forgotten about this one, too. :)
Sketches based on word play were the preserve of the ex-Cambridge Pythons (Chapman, Cleese and Idle). And the sketches that tended to be more visual were the ex-Oxford Pythons (Palin and Jones).
It's right up there with the penguin on the telly. I've kept a stuffed penguin on top of my telly for years. Now that we have flat screens, it's standing beside it. Still, it explodes occasionally.
The Ministry of Silly Walks is my favorite. Really tweaks the bureaucratic Establishment
I worked on this sketch as a trainee camera operator and unfortunately when Graham Chapman fired the gun 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.
🙀
Don't try that with Alec Baldwin
Wadding. Woody sort of word. Wadding.
Were you hurt?
@@mimilini1 Devastated.
"Sorry, old horse" gets me every time.
and "Now you're talking!" My friend and I still randomly quote that. lol
"sorry, old beast" does it for me
A good, woody apology.
"Ooooh, sorry, Beck ole beast"
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.
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!
_Albatross_ . That's a good word.
@@FrozenHero2010very woodie
Bit tinny in the middle
o-ce-lot
@@kirilzarinski6829 Cariobu … goone 🫎
This sketch leaves a kind of woody aftertaste in my mouth with just a hint of tin.
Might a suggest a polite spit, a hint of lemon to refresh - then repair immediately to the Cheese Shop sketch.
@@ianbartle456 And then have a bath.
THE SPANISH INQUISITION!!!
bound
vole
recidivist
:D
"Voluntary" organ donors...
I love how the staff are in the background just being furniture.
+Kenazzle No you don't.
Oh, sorry, wrong sketch.
Throatwobbler Mangrove I'd respond but someone just knocked me into the canal with a large halibut.
Kenazzle Was the halibut called Eric?
Throatwobbler Mangrove He was a very naughty boy.
+Kenazzle That sounds woody don't you think?
“Sorry old Horse!” Imagine saying that to Carol Cleveland…😂🤣
-INTERCOURSE!
-later dear
gets me every time
I had to pause the video after that part because I was laughing too hard. 😂😂😂
Graham Chapman, I believe, was completely and utterly hammered throughout this period. Good times. Still a wonderful, woody sort of sketch.
Gorn!!!
Intercourse the penguin
He was! Very Goooooorn
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.
@@michaelbuhagiar6203 Goooorn
The four people in the back had the hardest job of all:
Maintaining their composure for five straight minutes.
Like the Roman guards in the Incontinentia Buttox scene in Life of Brian, they should have all been on double time pay.
@@ianbartle456 You do not find it wisible, when I mention my friend, Biggus... Dickus?
Suppose they wanted to be gone!
Ear plugs😂
Being wood
The full parrot sketch with the lumberjack song is probably my favourite
The Michael Ellis sketch is quite good as well.
@Ang543210 Doug and Dinsdale.
You must be Canadian!
I have to commend the extras in the background for keeping a straight face.
How many takes must this have taken
well that girl got startled by the gunshot pretty badly. Must be the longest 5 minutes of her life trying to hold her laugh.
Ear plugs, maybe?
+lionhead123 She does smile quite a bit when the bucket comes out.
Greater strength has never been displayed on tv
Love, love, love, love, love the exchange:
"Dead is she?"
"'fraid so"
"What a blow for her."
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 TH-cam 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.
“WHAT’S URP?”
Whether this is their best sketch or not, you’ve got to hand the Best Monty Python Actor trophy to Graham Chapman. The man’s range was astounding.
He was just so darned........woody.
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! 😂❤🎉
Chapman really was their best actor. That's why he played the key roles of King Arthur and Brian Cohen; he carried the through-line of the plots.
He was amazing. At 1:55 he turns into Tim Brooke-Taylor.
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.
"Mansfield's just shot one in the antlers."
Can't argue with that as a line.
Which episode of Downton Abbey is this?
pwahahaha.
+DrCruel - ALL OF THEM!!!
+DrCruel The episode that was far too silly.
***** Quite.
+DrCruel waaahahahahah. Comment of the yeaaaar!!!
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 - and making fun of the aristocracy
+Ratel.H Badger To be fair, they did that pretty regularly. See Upper Class Twit of the Year.
Eleglas Indeed
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.
Chapman's delivery is utterly sublime on this. Was in tears at his enunciation of 'prodding'
The Pythons always reckoned Graham was their best actor, which is why he got the lead role in the Grail and Brian movies.
I wouldn't say it's their best sketch, but it's absolutely one of their most underrated. It's definitely one I watch again and again, and I always find it funny. Chapman's facial expressions are priceless here.
One of their most underrated lines too. "Dead is she? What a blow for her.".
It is all about Chapman's facial expressions. He rules that sketch
Best is so subjective, but I know I loved this sketch when I went through watching all the episodes in order, and it is a standout in my mind.
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! 😂❤
I love the one about the guy hooked on blue cheese 🙂 .
@@Beirut27 my favorite was the lifeboat cannibals or cannibal undertakers
Dennis Moore sketch was my favorite. Their brilliance was ahead of it's time.
@@republiccan7138 he robs from the poor and gives to the rich! Stupid bitch! 😁😁😁
I sort of consider that this is how the aristocracy actually spend a lot of their time...
+Katherine Daniel
Sort of...consider...aristocracy... delightfully woody words.
Andronikos
"commoner!"
Ugh.... terribly tinny word, that.....
+Katherine Daniel Wombat!
before tvs and internet yes ^^
muaythai193
INTERNET!
A woody word if ever I heard one!
....Dial-up.... Horribly Tinny....
Graham Chapman was amazing. A very sad loss to comedy when he passed away.
The N word
What a blow for him.
The Tintin movie would've finished off Becky.
Ha. Ha.
Sorry old man!
awful Tinny movie! Tintin!
Becky would love 'Toy Story' though. It is quite woody.
+Corey Wright Badum tish
I just like how the staff from the cast of Downton Abbey traveled back in time to stand behind them in this sketch.
Doing nothing.
DOWN-ton : there’s a good woody sort of word!
@@Argonaut121 But they did it very well.
Top marks to the background actors for keeping a straight face through this. That's talent.
Just barely. Look at the maid during the "erogenous zooooonne" part of the sketch.
@@brianhaygood183 poor girl nearly jumped out of her skin when the gun went off!
@@willbick7889 That's when it all started getting hard for her. Too much emotion.
@@willbick7889 The really, really pretty one?
@@willbick7889She was nearly to be gooooooon
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.
god how I'd love to be a "gentleman of leisure"
Yep
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.
I think some have taken the sketch as a model of upper class decline. You’re taking yourselves a bit too seriously. The whole point is in the absurdity.
Gorn; honestly one of my favorite Star Trek species
The Arena
@@ksrmk Arena? Bit tinny, don't you think?
@@FranklinHarris Frightfully so.
What a super woody sort of alien...Gooooooorn.
@@KillingAddiction 😂😂
My two new favorite things about this sketch: Eric Idle's teacup pinky and Michael Palin's presumptuous nose sniff after saying "What rotten luck!".
This is one of those Monty Python sketches that I like because you either get it or you don't.
Like any MP sketch
Best expressions: Graham Chapman
Best vocalist: Carol Cleveland
Best cross dresser: Eric Idle
Winner: The servants keeping straight faces throughout the sketch!
Carol was great
Except the maid, second servant on the left, who almost lost it after Mansfield shot the caribou nibbling the croquet hoops.
@@heartspy4525 She obv was laughing at the Original Poster cameraman getting shot with that Woody Olde Wadding.
Eric wants to be a woman
NDA's. Non Disclosure Agreements. 😅
Silly walks, the lumberjack song, fish slapping dance, and I loved the cycling tour with Mr. Pither.
"Do sing me a song! Something woody!"
"You've got a friend in me. You've got a friend in me"
Aaaaaah genius.
I'm a lumberjack and I'm okay; I sleep all night and I work all day.
🎶 I cut down trees I eat my lunch and go to the lavatory and on Wednesdays I go shopping and have buttered scones for tea 🎶@@MajorazMasta
These guys were utterly hilarious. Unmatched by anything around today.
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.
A woodycomment😅
The nurse with the sunglasses 🤣
GROOT. I like the word Groot, gives me confidence. Got a very woody sound to it. GROOT.
I had a good laugh at that!
Yes not at all like Ronan or Rocket. Dreadfully tinny words.
Can' t beat woo wood , anyway
CJusticeHappen21 'Groot' means large or big in Dutch. Bit weird to hear a tree say it
um, hate to be that guy but they were saying "Gone" guys
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 Spam, Lumberjack, Communists, Silly Walks, Dead Parrot, Cheese shop... All woody!
@@TuckerSP2011 Wait,no Spanish Inquisition? 🤣
Spring Surprise and Crunchy Frog are my two favourites!@@alangiles2763
This is one of the most "British" things I've ever seen.
Yes it has definitely british feel to it :) I like british people though
I'm British and this was the best thing ever
+ prophetic0311
Obviously they have been British ;)
I'm American but I tend to agree. Personally I prefer the ministry of the funny walks. Check it out sometime.
prophetic0311 oh my, British is quite a woody word, is it not?
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
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.
Freud would have to say a woody word or two about this skit, I suppose. 😉
The pilot is a reference to another sketch called "RAF Banter" that is worth checking out.
pretty sure it's the same episode
I love that sketch.
Afraid I don't quite follow you, Squadron Leader.
"Cabbage crates coming over the horizon??!"
The first cabbage crates hit London by July 7th. That was just the beginning...
WOODY and TINNY. Brilliant sketch.
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.
Yes, it's a very woody sort of sketch, innit?
At least you don't have to be "hung by the neck until you cheer up".
@@AB-ku4my LOL - great line. Said by King Otto I believe.
@@ysgol3 No, it's the judge, played by Chapman.
@@Innerspace100 Hi, thanks for the correction - in which sketch please (is it the 'wooden teeth' one)?
Every Monty Python sketch is their best, I have a total set in my mind and worship it whenever I sit on a toilet
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.
Nudge Nudge was boring
@@ShuikGaming Nah, it weren't boring, na wah I mean? Nudge nudge, wink wink. Say no more.
@@ShuikGaming No no, no NO! Is you wife, er, fond of phoTOGraphy?
You don't like SPAM?
@@GrandTeuton The Sketch or the food?
No caribou were injured during the shooting of this sketch.
No Pythons were injured during the shooting of this caribou.
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.
***** Ahahah I thought the same thing after reading the OP comment.
Yes they were. He shot one, in the antlers.
Nope....one was definitely shot. Although it must have been a very small one from the angle of the gun.
How are the 4 servants behind 'em keeping a straight face
The maid is wearing sunglasses
As the help should be!
I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks this was their funniest sketch. All the elements of their internal madness are on display here.
It’s my favorite and that’s saying a lot
"You can't beat wood" is a hilarious accidental joke
Particularly coming from Graham Chapman.
It isn't accidental.
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 ...
Daisy Brambletoes I believe only Americans call erect penises "wood", so it probably is accidental. No other English speakers use that term.
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.
how those four people standing in the back keep a straight face through all that... they must have been pulled from a funeral
This is how I imagine Boris Johnson spends his free time.
This sketch is chicken feed to him.
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!
That voice of his was also a great factor in his comedy. He was a master of comic-inflection ! Miss him so.....
2:34 Caribou gooone - you can see Eric Idle geniunly laughing. :)
+Phil Shary "Erogenous zoooooooone"
+YellowOnline true! He tries really hard not to. :)
Anthony Smith thank you, my dear.
"Intercourse."
"Later dear."
"No, no, the word 'Intercourse'."
Kevin Lebby
The penguin?
"Mrs. Vermin-Jones" 😄 These men were masters of language. This sketch nicely shows off their love of words.
Can't forget, "My name is spelt Raymond Luxury Yacht, but it's pronounced Throat Warbler Mangrove."
@@yeroca 😄
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.
I like the "Back in my day..." one, four of them reminiscing. Fun.
@ralphmacchiato3761 Ya, this is definitely not one of best Monty Python sketches.
Frightfully sorry Graham Chapman's long GORRRRRRRNNNNNN.
fell in the well thirsty for escape from sadness.
That's a very woody sort of phrase.
AECSRQ GAAAAAAAWWWWWN
He's nibbling off the croquet hoops. The wooden sort, of course.
You spelled it incorrectly.
Nowhere near their best sketch.
John Seabrook What a tinny comment.
John Seabrook Sorry 'bout that old horse.
+John Seabrook you just don;t get it. it's genius. oh so british.
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.
+John Seabrook... Exactly. I would rate this as one of their very worst sketches.
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 🙂
You're pretty good at 'rithmetic. Who'd a thought ...
Carol was absolutely delightful. A great complement to these geniuses.
I thought so too! I'm not sure any other sketch she was in gave her a chance to display such telent!
“Complement”: there’s a good woody sort of word, complement.
@@ChordtoChord Scott of the Sahara is another fine moment for her, where she plays the dimwit American actress Vanilla Hore.
The DADAists would have loved Monty Python for this sketch alone! Good stuff, hear hear!
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.
Waldog Opinions are like assholes, Everyone has one, and they all stink, except the ones you like. Thus is the nature of opinions.
Anyone with a teaspoon of brains knows that the best ice cream has cubelets of Spam!
I love this skit! Every time I stop and think about how a word sounds I find myself just speaking through the skit instead.
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.
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.
IKR. When he said they sounded woody, I thought yep, they do.
Wonderful to see this again. I remember it on TV as it was a favourite of mine and I was of that age. I still find it incredibly funny.
How those background actors kept a straight face during this sketch is beyond me...
EROGENOUS ZOOOOONE lmfao
+judgewestenn CON-CU-BINE!
loose women erogenous zoo---
+judgewestenn
🤣🤣🤣 So funny.
You Brits have been cooped up on that island too long!
+Joey Jamison tell me about it.
+Joey Jamison Haha
Better to be cooped up on an island surrounded by sea than a continent surrounded by at least three winds of madness.
COOPED. Very woody sort of word, dont you think ol' chap ?
Its better that way considering our options for company
It's partly class-parody, but also the British appreciation for a certain synaesthetic _texture_ of various words, here taken to extremes.
***** Different people have different senses of humour.
***** 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
***** its a surreal sketch, those either bomb or hit the target. I guess I'm the target and you're the civilian casualty
***** 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
***** don't be so hard, perhaps thats from a python sketch?
J/K
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.
For those who don't get the humour, perhaps it might help to suggest that the Python team's approach is sometimes almost Dada, that is to say, absurdist. The underlying theme, if there be one, is that the monied classes have so little to do, that they have time to ponder on the synesthetic attributes of random words while libido rises or the desire for a bath to kill time becomes overwhelming. That, the various ridiculous salutations ("sorry, old horse/old chap" etc. to a female) and Chapman's lubricious delivery (reminiscent of Rowan Atkinson's "school register" delivery in the Secret Policeman's Ball) plus the sudden shock elements of the shotgun and the bellowed song-verse all conspire to create a surreal scenario that Lewis Carrol and Edward Lear would have empathised with. But to explain humour is to castrate it. I for one, just roll with the absurdity and enjoy the drunken, dream-like illogicality of it. Wonderfully liberating, I think. Stop making sense, after all.......
Wonderful castration.
Well, you've done an exellent castrating job of this one. So not woody! But.. very well put.
so sad that this is what we came to appreciate as a society
How is it possible someone doesn't get the genius of this skit?
@gogarrio Well, they're all out there...
This sketch is the very reason I switched from using my first name 'Tim" - so tiny, and use my middle name Gordon - so woody, so very woody. Also I play sitar the gourd based long neck lute of North India - Gordy on gourds! And is this why I nearly changed my name to Ocelot?
Gordon Ocelot. Very woody.
@@martinXYocelot sounds a trifle tinny to me... Gordon though, that's as sound as an oak.
Gordon Ocelot is very woody! Gorn!
“Dead is she?”
“ ‘Fraid so.”
“What a blow for her.”
@@TuckerSP2011 be orf with you! The caribou are on the lawn again...lawn, now that's a nice woody word, much better than grass!
Also full points to the servants_ how on earth they managed to stand there without rolling around on the floor in fits of laughter beats me.
I always enjoy watching the maid jump when Chapman fires the gun, and then try not to giggle.
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 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.
Onnnnnlyyyyyyy....
mmm reminds me of chocolate.
Tony Arcieri i dunno. i usually have to say them when i recall an akward moment. helps me clear my mind.
but sometimes it's just because im bored.
flabbergasting
no, that's just with everybody i'm pretty sure
autism... now theres a woody sounding word
The young maid behind is cracking up throughout.
DEFINITELY Monty Python's best sketch ever! I was peeing in a bucket laughing at it years ago, & have been looking for it & couldn't find it. Until now! 😸👍
Looking for what, the bucket...?
"Dead, is she?"
"'Fraid so."
"What a blow for her."
This is everything Monty Python ever stood for.
+SirCamera you again!
Copacetic who're you?
We had a back and forth regarding the Coen Brothers. It's just a tremendous coincidence to see you again.
"everything Monty Python ever" Indeed no. Cleese stood for logical development in comedy and he had left.
I wish people would stop calling their uploads the 'best ever'.
Worst ever just doesn't sell like it used to.
lwolf1952 woooooorst. Woody.
not bad for around this time
It's okay for their worst season, Season 4. But for an actually funny sketch that isn't famous either, try "Flying Lesson."
[PRANK][COPS CALLED][GONE INTERCOURSE][WOODY][TINNY]
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.
Haha - Simpkins sounds like a name for cute fluffy kitten - not a macho leather jacket wearing, pipe smoking air ace.
@@ianbartle456 mansfield hated it too. He even called it a teeny name.
Everything about this sketch is absolutely brilliant.
The great Don Knots as the chauffeur standing in the back.
“Intercourse!”. “Later dear….” :)
not seen this sketch since the original broadcasting when I was at school, I still remember the brilliant script!! Thank you
This sketch is priceless...and probably a sarcastic take on English aristocracy. I'm sure this scene has been played out in real life many thousands (millions?) of times. I have to wonder what goes through the minds of the bevy of servants standing in the background. hahaaa
These guys are (and in Graham's case, were) very intelligent cats. These sorts of sketches, where they went into language and word jokes, were some of their best. I'd forgotten about this one, too. :)
Sketches based on word play were the preserve of the ex-Cambridge Pythons (Chapman, Cleese and Idle). And the sketches that tended to be more visual were the ex-Oxford Pythons (Palin and Jones).
Oxford: sounds nice and woody. Cambridge: frightfully tinny sort of name.
@@johnboyce8279 Caribou. Playing crocquet on the lawn.
dead, is he? what a blow for him.
@@johnboyce8279 Eton--sort of PVC sort of word, you know?
For some reason, seeing this sketch gives me the urge to put one thing on top of another thing.
"Tonight on Ethel the Frog" Piranha brothers, gets my vote for best Python skit
OMG I have ALWAYS found this to be one of the funniest things they ever did! And someone else finally agrees!
Hmmm.
Caribou gorn!
Eroginal ZONE
0:35 "You can't beat wood". Yes you can ;)
Dubstep From God Now now, Don't be a Tit about it XD
I often do.
+stanthology sounds too tinny.
DFG Music Your profile picture goes perfectly with what you said
salamander7125 how?
It's right up there with the penguin on the telly. I've kept a stuffed penguin on top of my telly for years. Now that we have flat screens, it's standing beside it. Still, it explodes occasionally.
I put a shelve over my telly for the penguin.
That scream is hysterical.
Wow they were ahead of the ice bucket thing.
Intercourse lives up to today's standards as a 'Woody' word.
even back then they were making fun of people getting "triggered" by words
It is somewhat prophetic...
Prophetic...
Horrible tinny word that.
Mr Ben EEEEEEEEE
Excellent point!
StormoTheBrave !
What made you think triggered was a new thing? Been happening for eons
I have been looking all over for this skit! thanks!