People you don’t know, lines you don’t understand, props you don’t get. Post them here in hopes of getting an explanation. I’ll start.
Who are Ann Hayden Jones and her husband Pip?
Who is Clodah (sp?) Rogers?
Who is Reginald Maudlin (sp?) and why is he pictured with a bandaged head?
What’s the deal with the Australian hats with the corks hanging off them?
In Holy Grail, the French Taunter (John Cleese) says, after being asked by King Arthur who lives in the castle, “this is the castle of my master, Guy De Lombard (or “Guido Lombard” or something similar).”
I suppose I could gogle the name, but without knowing exactly which one was said, I couldn’t be sure that I found the right person
That bothers me every time I watch it.
I suspect it’s a Guy Lombardo joke. (Wikipedia agrees.)
The corks are ostensibly to keep the flies out of your eyes.
This type of hat was, according to Australian lore, worn by rural types in the outback. It has attained sort of iconic status as a symbol of the Australia bush.
I went to an agricultural high school in Australia, i’ve spent a fair bit of time on sheep and wheat and other types of farms in central and western New South Wales, and i have never ever seen a person wearing a hat with corks dangling off the brim.
Strike that.
I have seen such hats, but they were being worn by drunken cricket spectators.
I don’t know that there are any references that I’m aware of not catching, but I know that there are things that simply went past me until I’d read the right books. (Mostly physics and philosophy jokes.)
I wonder if the up-and-coming generation will really “get” the Mouse Problem sketch - (“How many of us can honestly say that at one time or another we haven’t felt sexually attracted to mice? I know I have.”) - now that there’s an established subculture that does, you know, go to parties, drink quite a lot… sometimes dress up as mice a bit, and start… squeaking.
All right Clever Trousers, if you’re such the expert then give with the explanations.
Huh. I always thought his master’s name was Guy de la Wombat. It seemed randomly ridiculous enough to fit.
Clodagh Rodgers was a female vocalist roughly in the mould of Cilla Black or Lulu in the 1970s.
Reginald Maudlin was a politician, a member of the Cabinet. Can’t help you with the bandaged head though.
This is, perhaps, not the sort of phrase that ought to be left hanging until, much later in the sentence, the reader discovers that the word “sheep” is actually an adjective after all.
But thanks for giving my neurons a workout anyway.
Something I never quite got, why did they use the airline name Pan Am as a person’s joke name (more than once too). Why is that all that funny?
Thanks for starting this thread, Otto. I’ve considered starting one like it, myself. Especially the “Ann Hayden-Jones and her husband Pip” references. That one’s been driving me crazy for years.
Anyone? Ann Hayden-Jones? Anyone?
“We’re done for! We’re done for!”
“Shut up, Maudlin.”
I took it to mean that he was a “Chicken Little” sort.
I think you’ll find he was actually Reginald Maudling.
Prominent Tory. Liked a drink. Popped in the snoot by some Irish gal while Home Secy.
Ann Hayden Jones was a tennis player – Wimbledon women’s champ in 1969. I’m assuming the “Pip” is just something the Pythons added just as a funny juxtaposition; it may refer to Great Expectations.
The stuff I didn’t get were the extremely Brit-centric references. But that never detracted from my thourough enjoyment
It’s important to bear in mind that much Python humor is quite determinedly nonsensical and illogical, particularly the work of Michael Palin and Terry Jones. Preposterous names were a Python staple (Mr. Spare Button Supplied With His Shirt being a favorite of mine) and Police Constable Pan Am makes no more or less sense than would a million other names.
Since so much of their humor depends on the non sequitur, I’m sure there are numerous polical or cultural references that sail over my head because they just seemed like another bit of randomness. I’ve often wondered if there wasn’t some kind of compelling back story to “Lemon curry?” I’m pretty sure the guy who says it was a BBC newsreader.
(Funny how the meaning of the nonsense chanting of “spam” has now changed, essentially because of the word’s use as nonsense in that sketch … Who hears “spam” and thinks of potted meat now?)
As an aside, I’d like to point out that I’ve seen the Eurovision Song Contest mocked by the Pythons, the Young Ones, Benny Hill, and probably Morcambe and Wise (who used to be shown on New York’s Channel 9 in the 70s), but I’ve never actually seen the damn thing itself.
When I first moved to Europe the one thing my multi-European workgroup could agree upon was the mockery of Eurovision. So of course I was compelled to watch it when it came on. It’s not as much fun as the mockery.
The meaning is obvious from the context, but I’ve never heard the phrase “barley cross fingers” before or since.
I don’t recall exactly where, but in one of the sketches someone reacted to something with “oh, what a giveaway!”, and in one of their cricket recaps one of the players was “O. W. A. Giveaway.” It seems like referencing the same phrase twice suggests that it has more than just the literal meaning.