# Truth underlying Monty Python's cannibalism sketch? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 19, 2011, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truth-underlying-monty-pythons-cannibalism-sketch/600146 "2011-10-19T14:57:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truth-underlying-monty-pythons-cannibalism-sketch/600146/1 "2011-10-19T14:57:50Z")
One of my favourite Monty Python moments is Graham Chapman as a naval officer saying, in a very official manner — “There is no – I repeat, no – cannibalism in the Royal Navy. And when I say none, I mean that there is a certain amount.” I got to wondering whether besides being a brilliant bit of surrealism also is a more direct satire of something. Was there ever any sort of situation in which the Royal Navy was in the position of almost-but-not-quite-successfully-vehemently denying something? Say, the existence of same-sex sexual activity or something? Or drug use? Or alcoholism? Or racism? Anyone around in that era know what might have been going on with the navy back then? ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truth-underlying-monty-pythons-cannibalism-sketch/600146/2 "2011-10-19T14:58:51Z")
I thought you meant the one with the morticians who are clearly cooking and eating the bodies. The one you can hear the boos in the audience in. ---
**Author:** ![Oy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bc8723/32.png) [@Oy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oy)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truth-underlying-monty-pythons-cannibalism-sketch/600146/3 "2011-10-19T15:18:14Z")
Mostly what they then referred to as “paederasty.” Which makes it extra ironic that Graham Chapman was the one denying cannibalism. I believe that cannibalism did occur occasionally when crews were shipwrecked for long periods of time and some survivors eventually recovered. But I don’t think it was ever widespread. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truth-underlying-monty-pythons-cannibalism-sketch/600146/4 "2011-10-19T15:30:57Z")
This is a good question. I’ve always assumed that it was an oblique reference to homosexuality in the navy. Like Churchill said, “Rum, sodomy, and the lash.” Have any of the Pythons ever talked about it? ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truth-underlying-monty-pythons-cannibalism-sketch/600146/5 "2011-10-19T15:35:33Z")
I thought the title refered to the Lifeboat sketch. Or is that immediately preceding the Chapman denial the OP refers to? “Look. I tell you what. Those who want to can eat Johnson. And you, sir, can have my leg. And we make some stock from the Captain, and then we’ll have Johnson cold for supper.” ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truth-underlying-monty-pythons-cannibalism-sketch/600146/6 "2011-10-19T15:43:41Z")
[Very British cannibals: How an epic Navy voyage across the Arctic came to a truly sinister end](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1195810/Very-British-cannibals-How-epic-Navy-voyage-Arctic-came-truly-sinister-end.html) > [@](#): > > We cannot know when it started, nor who took the gruesome decision, but some time in May 1848, British sailors from HMS Erebus and HMS Terror began butchering and eating their comrades. > > Did they kill the living, picking out the weak, the young and the expendable? Or did they confine their attentions to the dead? That, too, history cannot tell. But one thing is certain, the sailors ate their shipmates - not just one or two of them, but 40 or 50. Perhaps more. The Franklin expedition was given huge publicity by official examinations of the outcome. I’m sure it was in all their history books. ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truth-underlying-monty-pythons-cannibalism-sketch/600146/7 "2011-10-19T16:05:46Z")
I always assumed the sketch was a joke on historical cannibalism in the Navy; that sort of thing used to happen in desperate shipwrecky type events. However, I never claimed to be the sharpest knife in the drawer. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truth-underlying-monty-pythons-cannibalism-sketch/600146/8 "2011-10-19T17:11:32Z")
> [@Oy](#): > > Mostly what they then referred to as “paederasty.” Which makes it extra ironic that Graham Chapman was the one denying cannibalism. Huh? ---
**Author:** ![Oy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bc8723/32.png) [@Oy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oy)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truth-underlying-monty-pythons-cannibalism-sketch/600146/9 "2011-10-19T17:28:46Z")
“Paederasty” = homosexuality, which as far as I know was not a word in use at the time. Graham Chapman was gay. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truth-underlying-monty-pythons-cannibalism-sketch/600146/10 "2011-10-19T17:40:23Z")
There probably were instances of cannibalism when sailors where shipwrecked, but it was a very unusual event on the ship on which I served. No more than once a year. Well, maybe twice, but no more than that, unless we didn’t like what the cook had served. But that only happened every few weeks and not on a daily basis. At least not most days. ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truth-underlying-monty-pythons-cannibalism-sketch/600146/11 "2011-10-19T18:17:18Z")
I read an interesting book - The [Custom of the Sea](http://www.amazon.com/Custom-Sea-Shocking-Shipwreck-Murder/dp/0471399779/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1319048015&sr=8-1) which talks about shipwreck cannibalism in the late 19th century. Although they proposed drawing lots to see who would be killed, in reality they chose the youngest, weakest, and lowest-ranking person in the lifeboat. StG ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truth-underlying-monty-pythons-cannibalism-sketch/600146/12 "2011-10-19T18:41:50Z")
I asssumed (perhaps wrongly) that cannibalism was merely a stand-in for homosexuality. A LOT of Python bits used absurd phenomena as symbols for homosexuality- remember that documentary about men who secretly dress up as mice? Same principle. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truth-underlying-monty-pythons-cannibalism-sketch/600146/13 "2011-10-19T19:09:33Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > I asssumed (perhaps wrongly) that cannibalism was merely a stand-in for homosexuality. > > A LOT of Python bits used absurd phenomena as symbols for homosexuality- remember that documentary about men who secretly dress up as mice? Same principle. Probably that, or a general comment on the way the Royal Navy deals with any scandal. I think there were scandals involving lashings and other punishments used at sea in the past. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truth-underlying-monty-pythons-cannibalism-sketch/600146/14 "2011-10-19T19:34:19Z")
> [@Oy](#): > > “Paederasty” = homosexuality No. It’s a _particular_ kind of homosexual union, that of an older man and a _young_ boy. So you’ve accused Chapman of something not very nice. > [@Oy](#): > > , which as far as I know was not a word in use at the time. The word’s been around since the 19th Century ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truth-underlying-monty-pythons-cannibalism-sketch/600146/15 "2011-10-19T19:38:41Z")
I’m sure the Lifeboat sketch & not the Mortician sketch is meant in the OP, and sometimes cannibalism is just cannibalism. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2011, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/truth-underlying-monty-pythons-cannibalism-sketch/600146/16 "2011-10-19T22:50:54Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Probably that, or a general comment on the way the Royal Navy deals with any scandal. I think there were scandals involving lashings and other punishments used at sea in the past. I think it is a satire about how _any_ large official organization deals with _any_ sort of scandal, or hint of scandal. It is not really specific to the Royal Navy, or cannibalism, or homosexuality. The “Mice” sketch mentioned by **astorian** , on the other hand, is a brilliant satire on attitudes to homosexuality (although it is also about attitudes to illegal drugs), and although you can understand and appreciate it well enough without knowing that Chapman was gay, it does take on deeper resonance when you know. “. . . . . . . . So I think we should kill 'em.”