“Stake Your Claim” from Monty Python’s “Not Another Python Record”
Host (John Cleese): Good evening and welcome to ‘Stake Your Claim’. First this evening we have Mr Norman Voles of Gravesend who claims he wrote all Shakespeare’s works. Mr Voles, I understand you claim that you wrote all those plays normally attributed to Shakespeare?
Voles (Michael Palin): That is correct. I wrote all his plays and my wife and I wrote his sonnets.
Host: Mr Voles, these plays are known to have been performed in the early 17th century. How old are you, Mr Voles?
Voles: 43.
Host: Well, how is it possible for you to have written plays performed over 300 years before you were born?
Voles: Ah well. This is where my claim falls to the ground.
Host: Ah!
Voles: There’s no possible way of answering that argument, I’m afraid. I was only hoping you would not make that particular point, but I can see you’re more than a match for me!
Host: Mr Voles, thank you very much for coming along.
Voles: My pleasure.
But Confucius has answered them with the final whistle, it’s all over. Germany, having trounced England’s famous midfield trio of Bentham, Locke and Hobbes in the semi-final, have been beaten by the odd goal.
“I love Eric. He’s such a funny, nice, likeable guy, and some of the best and funniest times I’ve had have been with Eric.” - Michael Palin
International Philosophy: Germany vs. Greece
“Hegel is arguing that the reality is merely an a prioriadjunct of non-naturalistic ethics, Kant via the categorical imperative is holding that ontologically it exists only in the imagination, and Marx is claiming it was offside.”
Is it bad that I used to watch this sketch when I studied for philosophy exams?
Terry J’s DVD commentaries
And yet, this preacher is, bar none, my favorite character in the movie.
By about age 11, I had this song completely memorized. I used to sing it at the top of my lungs, in public (I’d say “Oh my poor parents,” but it was really all their own doing.) This was, of course, long before I had any idea what it meant. All I heard was highly professional sounding singers singing with extreme seriousness about something that sounded vaguely naughty to my precocious eleven-year-old ears. Funnily enough, after a decade’s worth of life experience, I still find this song funny for the same reasons.
Monty Python’s Flying Circus - Sex and violence - Outtakes (including the infamous phone number) (by themontypythonmuseum)
It’s been posted before, but I couldn’t find it again so here it is. :)
MONTY.PYTHON.BLOOPERS. GUYS. GUYS. GUYS. GUYS.
Cardinal, giive the rack a turn… I know you can’t. I didn’t want to say anything, I just wanted to try and ignore your crass mistake. It makes it all seem so stupid!
NO SINGING!
A few days ago, someone said to me, “Someday, all of this will be yours,” and I replied, “What, the curtains?”
They had NO clue what I was talking about. I was devastated.
WELCOME TO MY WORLD. Every time I make a Monty Python reference and someone gets it, I want to hug them.
He knew all the tricks: dramatic irony, metaphor, bathos, puns, parody, litotes… and satire.
