# Monty Python and Reginald "Maudlin" (not sure of spelling) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 17, 2000, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monty-python-and-reginald-maudlin-not-sure-of-spelling/25834 "2000-07-17T13:27:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2000, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monty-python-and-reginald-maudlin-not-sure-of-spelling/25834/1 "2000-07-17T13:27:33Z")
On the old “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” series, there were always a lot of jokes about someone named Reginald Maudlin (correct the spelling, if it’s way off). Now, these references always cracked up the audience, but I never had a clue who he was. So, would some Pythonophile (they’re legion on these boards) tell us who Reggie was? Some British politician of the 70s? Oh, I’m sure the jokes won’t be any funnier to me if I know, but I’m still curious. (Presumably, a latter day Englishman watching old 1980s SNL re-runs might have similar questions… like “Who is this Joe Franklin person supposed to be?”) ---
**Author:** ![Gilligan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Gilligan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gilligan)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2000, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monty-python-and-reginald-maudlin-not-sure-of-spelling/25834/2 "2000-07-17T13:56:52Z")
[Reginald Maudling](http://www.bartleby.com/65/ma/Maudling.html) ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2000, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monty-python-and-reginald-maudlin-not-sure-of-spelling/25834/3 "2000-07-17T13:59:09Z")
From the Monty Python FAQ ( found at [http://www.tuatha.org/~simon/mpfaq.html](http://www.tuatha.org/~simon/mpfaq.html) ): \> Reginald Maudlin was the English Tory home secretary \> under MacMillan, Home, and Heath. ---
**Author:** ![Boris\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@Boris\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boris_B)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2000, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monty-python-and-reginald-maudlin-not-sure-of-spelling/25834/4 "2000-07-17T16:06:30Z")
Did they invent the gumby? I.e., those fellas with the funny scarves on their heads who shout and act goofy. Is it a traditional thing to call somebody a “gumby” when they stand up to their knees in a brook and shout that they want to outlaw people whol stand in water? Just curious. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2000, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monty-python-and-reginald-maudlin-not-sure-of-spelling/25834/5 "2000-07-17T16:38:29Z")
from [The PythoNET FAQ FILE](http://www.pythonet.org/pyth-faq.html) > [@](#): > > Cleese claims to have created the character during an improvised filming session while Python was still in its planning stages. He was supposed to stand in a lake and say “I would tax people who stand in water,” a particularly idiotic line, and developed the costume and persona while unsure of what to do. This story may be incorrect as the bit he speaks of did not surface in an actual episode until series 2, episode 2 (_The Spanish Inquisition_), and this is a bit long to wait on a clip of that sort. However, we have no better explanation so Cleese’s story stands. The connection, if any, to the claymation character is unknown, but it remains the only thing Art Clokey, Eddie Murphy, and the Pythons have in common. ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2000, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monty-python-and-reginald-maudlin-not-sure-of-spelling/25834/6 "2000-07-17T16:57:50Z")
I’m quoting from memory here, so please bear with me. From a video interview with John Cleese, he stated that the Gumby character developed from a character in a _vox pop_ sketch whose most memorable line was “I don’t eat squirrels, now do I? I mean… BLIMEY! BLIMEY!!”. Present were the handkerchief and gumboots, but no glasses or pullover or stupid goofy voice. From _The Life of Python_ (the book from the 80s), a snippet that the Gumbies were formed from someone’s memory of a comic photograph of a man on vacation dressed in such a manner. Whether it was Palin or Cleese, or even one of the other three British Pythons, I don’t remember. As for Art Clokey: another book I thumbed through many years ago stated that he got _Gumby_ from an old family joke. “Getting stuck in the gumbo” was an ancestor’s slang for getting stuck in the mud during the rainy season. “Gumby” resulted from an inspired declension of “gumbo” according to Latin grammatical rules. And that’s all I know about that.