Mitchell and Webb Under the Linden Tree with Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria contemplates a gift from America

[@feihusong]

You are queen Victoria, this society was your idea! I am boiling!

[@kennethmackay5137]

I can barely MOVE at home for little vases on stands and pictures of ill children praying.

[@marnanel]

​​@@kennethmackay5137nd for what? What HAS been the point?

[@kennethmackay5137]

@@marnanel I love the way he delivers the final rant. 'What has been the point, what really has been the point of the last FIFTY years of my BEING A VICTORIAN if Queen Victoria herself etc. So so good.

[@grimTales1]

One of the best Mitchell and Webb sketches ever, brilliant! LMAO :D

[@positivecrusader]

Brilliant! The linden tree smell thing is obviously a great subject for a sketch, but working in Queen Victoria? Genius!

[@Georgieastra]

I have always maintained that this sketch is heavily inspired by the famous GK Chesterton observation: _It really is more natural to believe a preternatural story, that deals with things we don’t understand, than a natural story that contradicts things we do understand. Tell me that the great Mr Gladstone, in his last hours, was haunted by the ghost of Parnell, and I will be agnostic about it_ *But tell me that Mr Gladstone, when first presented to Queen Victoria, wore his hat in her drawing-room and slapped her on the back and offered her a cigar* _and I am not agnostic at all. That is not impossible; it’s only incredible. But I’m much more certain it didn’t happen than that Parnell’s ghost didn’t appear; because it violates the laws of the world I do understand_ G.K. Chesterton. The Complete Father Brown.

[@SomeBF]

Well observed thank you for the quote

[@NativeAlternative]

If they plan to make a new Queen Victoria biopic I will be the one leading the petition to get Robert Webb cast in the starring role...

[@SaulG88]

David Mitchell does the best British sarcastic rants since Fawlty Towers.

[@ryandevinefilm]

Agreed!

[@Sattva468]

I watch this video once a day for my ab workout. My obliques hurt after the first 30 seconds. Best most effective core routine ever.

[@DanielVerberne]

There’s that wonderful ‘word crescendo’ of Mitchell’s Prime Minister towards the end of this sketch, it’s beautiful! Whilst Mitchell delivers the killer lines, it wouldn’t work nearly so well if Webb didn’t equally kick home runs. A funny and remarkably concise sketch.

[@rooty]

Mitchell and Webb at their absolute best. Mitchell, as you say, has his word crescendo, and Webb on the other hand has the audience rolling on the floor before he's even said one word

[@KaraNolting]

Searched for this tonight because they're blooming here and I was walking the dog and noticed...THE SMELL.

[@irenelee2277]

linden trees do not smell

[@zaurike]

One of the funniest sketches of all time.

[@altclyti]

That was extremely funny! I dare say that they have now reached the point with this where it's as funny, or funnier than Pythons best. Quite an achievement.

[@JacobScott0000]

I agree fully

[@clairebear13cm]

Steady on now, let's not get carried away!

[@olfrygt]

I can barely move at home! All these little vases on stands or portraits of ill children praying! :D

[@Rushmore222]

That is just comedic perfection.

[@IoEstasCedonta]

Chipul tau si dragostea din tei, mi-amintesc de ochii tai...

[@marcuswalters8093]

I feel that at some point in 2003, David Mitchell went to the park and smelt a smelly tree and that was it.

[@peuterschmidt]

This is the best one I have seen from Mitchell and Webb

[@VenaCava4]

I definitely know the tree. Can't picture it, but the smell is definitely just that.

[@russellmoore8187]

This is likely the very finest M&W sketch of all.

[@FJF1085]

Anything she does is by definition Victorian. lol

[@strapioni]

I've played this 50 times now...luv it

[@Albionensis]

My new favourite sketch. I AM BOILING!

[@TyrSkyFatherOfTheGods]

I'm guessing the prime Minister is supposed to be Lord Salisbury. He mentions "50 years as a Victorian," at which time Salisbury was PM, and he had a big, bushy beard (unlike, say, Disraeli or Gladstone).

[@CDison]

I know this is just supposed to be a funny sketch, but I do believe they're referring to callery pears, not true "Linden" trees aka Tilia trees. They're commonly confused. While I agree that the callery pears smell gross, true Linden trees (tilia) smell like honey/lemon/heaven.

[@groganatoor]

C. Dison you sound particually fun at parties

[@drtoonie]

I was wondering why I couldn't relate this to linden trees. Thanks!

[@SD-vy7gj]

Maybe not your Party's. But I value being right over thinking I am. I love being around people who have knowledge to share. People who help me grow in some way. What do you talk about? British bake off?

[@TerraFirma556]

Has to be one of their best sketches.

[@TheThescroll]

@NoGufff We had trees like that at our high school, that when they bloomed in spring smelled as such. Some seniors cut them down as their senior prank. Nice white flowers though lol

[@georgerogers2120]

Plot twist: They don't actually smell like that on their own and the flowers weren't white to begin with. xD

[@m.k.1645]

There was an article in the Daily Mail about a town in America that had this issue 😂😂😂

[@grimTales1]

Brilliant sketch, love it!! :-D Maybe it's just the way she says cum, but I can't stop laughing, juxtaposing the Victorian image with the way Robert Webb says that and the language he uses as the Queen is hilarious :-D

[@McLeanAmy]

Brilliant!! xx

[@drworm5007]

Many people don't realize this isn't a sketch; it is in fact actual footage of David Mitchell's ancestor.

[@lisazoria2709]

Callery Pear trees really do have that smell... I don't know about Linden trees though.

[@latenitetvaddict]

I know!!! she was right, this is hilarious!!

[@maroonkobrakai]

I hadn't laughed this hard for ages the first time I saw this ... I nearly expired

[@tropicalgardenvlogs]

America low key trolling Britain

[@lcozzarelli]

second only to the "can people levitate" rant :)

[@Billkwando]

I wish I had more hands, so I could give this fifteen thumbs up.

[@116Bears]

@NoGufff It depends on what they have been eating.

[@datacentre81]

0:45 The waddle was hilarious! I thought she was sitting down!

[@TyrSkyFatherOfTheGods]

Happy Victoria Day!

[@TheWizardOfSmog]

There's a stand of Lindens in Kennington Park that I cycle past twice a day and for a couple of weeks Spring/Summer, when they're like ovulating or whatever I guess, they do indeed smell overpoweringly bukkake-y.

[@headfirst1987]

Do you know how hot i am? Under this hat?...and this beard?! This big victorian beard!

[@Ddraig64]

10 people like Linden Trees' scent.

[@sensiblenick]

Kinda specific this... but at Bisley Shooting ranges there is an alley of Lindens... affectionately known as "Cum-Tree Alley" the lasses who walked down it giggling are the ones you want to talk to ;o)

[@irenelee2277]

linden trees have no foul smell

[@sensiblenick]

Irene - they have a very specific smell at a very specific time of year. I never said it was foul. ☺️

[@irenelee2277]

linden flowers have a limey lemony scent. Cum smells of rotten pike.

[@presh55]

pure comedy gold - it's a side splitter

[@logann7942]

used to be a bunch where i rode my bike. always made me think "I smell treemen".

[@tinkdnuos]

I can barely move at home for little...vases on stands or...portraits of ill children, praying...

[@OpheliaImmortal]

congrats

[@simongarrettmusic]

yeah they do

[@NoGufff]

@maxaltenburg Hmm I dunno. Heard she was a crotchety old morphine fiend. A Morphiend. Yeah Morphiend ⓒ All rights reserved NoGufff 2010

[@seanbarr5871]

Omg, too funny.

[@dawnzilla]

gareth, they are vomit inducing--the wind will carry the stank. it's gnarly.

[@Harvester236]

At least it's genuine unlike some so-called 'comedy' programmes....yes I'm referring to American sitcoms like Friends.

[@simongarrettmusic]

yes it is ;)

[@kennethmackay5137]

Do you know how HOT I am??? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[@ZuluRomeo]

@OV3RCOM3 That's not the smell of the trees, it's the persistent taint of the pederasts.

[@BenPN1000]

Funny,in the summer there's always a cumy smell up the road from my house.Must be one of these trees.Its foul.

[@aegisgfx]

Nature just ran outtta smells is all.

[@pop5678eye]

I love irreverent comedy that doesn't hold back.

[@GGoAwayy]

Cumbleberry Trees

[@GarethandSarah]

Does the scent travel? Like if you are a street away from a park, can you tell?

[@MiserableStroman]

Well, that's British TV for ya'

[@Chingophia]

gahhh i had to tolerate the odious reek of the linden tree for 4 years during my walks to and from school. bastard tree!

[@shrike26]

@NoGufff yes

[@soleher]

My last name is Linden :o

[@randomaccessfemale]

+soleher Do you use deodorant?

[@irenelee2277]

@@randomaccessfemale linden trees have fragrant nectar producing flowers

[@FrozenCones]

I cant vouch for the Linden tree but I have been around trees which have had a really strong "cummy" scent. Needless to say its sickening when you get a nose full

[@aesa5493]

Bò sát

[@SaulG88]

Did the ambassador suddenly get an American Accent in the middle of his speech?

[@m1994a3jagnew]

The ambassador is American. A southerner.

[@littlsuprstr]

linden trees don't smell like semen. chestnut trees, yes.

[@toddhooper1382]

what does he say, little farthys on stands?

[@jimmierustler5607]

vases

[@shuboy05]

Todd Hooper Something about penny-farthings or those old time bikes with the large wheel in front of the little wheel.

[@lufsolitaire5351]

Considering her obsession with Prince Albert, she should know. They had 9 children and when he asked her to slow her roll she said “well, what else is there to do?”

[@DougZbikowski]

I didn't know it had a smell :(

[@MrCYTP]

Is it a film?

[@marnanel]

No, a TV sketch show.

[@HumanMonolith]

conservatism.mp4

[@WarbyWasTaken]

SAAAMEEE, and the EVIL VOICE

[@NoGufff]

So...I have to ask . DO Linden trees smell like semen ??

[@irenelee2277]

no

[@GoodThoughtFactory]

PEEP SHOW!