Monty Python - Mrs. Premise and Mrs. Conclusion

[@Gorboduc]

Of all the transitions from budgie-flushing to existentialism that I have ever heard, this one is by far the best.

[@pressureworks]

Budgie flushing is an essential element of existentialism.

[@GARDENER42]

@@pressureworks May I have the temerity to suggest it is in fact the opposite, with existentialism leading inevitably to budgie flushing.

[@daddyjoe600]

all of the sketches are of existentialism

[@josephbelisle5792]

Oh I don't know. Baywatch did a great job of it in season 2. Beavis and Buthead nailed it once.

[@beverleybeverleybeverley]

Methinks the audiences nowadays would find this sketch too highbrow! Love love love MP

[@meh8982]

One of my absolute favourite Monty Python sketches! Nobody else could have done anything like it. Decades later and I still giggle about Mrs. Premise, Mrs. Conclusion, and Mrs. Sartre - not to mention Mrs. Cutout.

[@ge2623]

And Mrs. Essence.

[@__seeker__]

And Mrs. Folly

[@nonosays]

Not only do I marvel, on revisiting this, at the sheer brilliance and hilarity of their comic acting, but the writing as well. Were we smarter then? Did they make us smarter? Consuming inspired lunacy like this instead of the pablum that passes for comedy today.

[@DieFlabbergast]

"Were we smarter then?" I don't know about you, but I certainly was!

[@nommh]

We are getting smarter all the time so they have to make intelligence tests harder every so often to get the Gaussian distribution right. What Python are using here is education as the breeding ground for their comedy. I don‘t know where education has gone…

[@toAdmiller]

The senses of humor and different styles of sketches were impressive in Monty Python, but one thing that you can't get away from is the depth and breadth of their European (specifically British) educations. Who else has ever made philosophy jokes their bread and butter? I have to scour Wikipedia to even begin to fully appreciate their ilk. I can laugh at the Gumbies like any one else, but then they keep bring up Kierkegaard!

[@moviemad56]

Toadster They also spoke Italian very well: kzbin.info/www/bejne/h2TMcqSug9WEY6M

[@sgtprestonoftheyukon2423]

You've got Vermeer all over your shirt !!!!😀

[@EmpressLeana]

Existential comics

[@premanadi]

They did all go to Oxford and Cambridge, after all!

[@sandradavies7804]

The really great thing is that all the people I know who watched Python understood exactly what they were on about too. Doubt you'd find that nowadays.

[@barney6888]

This is genius and in my view one of the top comedy sketches of all time. This is what people should remember MP for.

[@thebeatles4ever]

LOL, Graham and John humming "The Girl From Ipanema" was priceless :D

[@premanadi]

They also sing it in the exploding penguin on the TV sketch.

[@ninaberry7663]

Six glasses, and I'm also ready to agitate. One of the all-time great comedy sketches that just gets funnier as you get older.

[@timothywelch6450]

The passage of half a century allows us to begin to appreciate the level these boys were working at. This truly Avant Garde material in a truly Avant Garde show. And what a devastating reflection on production today. How have we come so low?

[@heidikleiber7703]

I just read an article interviewing Eric Idle, and when talking about Python's early days, he said they were asked to fill an empty time slot and then left to themselves. There were no executives, just them writing what they thought was funny. Creatives aren't given that sort of freedom nowadays, and it shows.

[@cristinabumbac151]

Their humor is not only satirical but also philosophical. They are just brilliant and in 50 years nobody could raise at their level. And I am certain that it will never happen...

[@cardinalhamneggs5253]

Satirical, philosophical, _and_ absurdist. Truly geniuses, the lot of them.

[@marsza11jm]

I've in love with Monty Python due to this sketch (and The Penguin on the television set sketch).

[@RobTheBuilder]

I've watched practically every sketch of Monty Python many times. I honestly missed just how funny this one really is. "No, that's Budapest"

[@camduthie6548]

RobTheBuilder s q,

[@JohnWilliams-gp6ec]

6 glasses and he's ready to agitate.

[@stephaniemunro2948]

Wow, that's crazy. Have you watched the one with the baboon?

[@tuqann]

"Where the businessmen of today can enjoy the facilities of tomorrow in the comfort of yesterday." Another brilliant gem 💜

[@stalhandske9649]

Like Sartre would ever answer to ANYTHING with a simple 'yes', let alone a question about a meaning of one of his works...

[@Muckylittleme]

That in itself was part of the joke, the answer to a deeply philosophical question (Or pretentious bollocks depending on your psyche) "Oui"

[@timq6224]

Satire was one of his main communication styles, therefor part of the joke.

[@kmcq692]

I also like the sequence about phone books that implies that ladies at the laundry actually know where all the practical facts are.

[@Evienoteevee]

Who in their right minds would dislike this? Probably people who don't understand it. This sketch is genius!

[@Dominic-mm6yf]

Folk are too thick and brainwashed today to either understand or appreciate Python.

[@MMG-q1v]

They object to drag queens.

[@JimTLonW6]

One of their very funniest sketches. I love the idea of the goat to eat JP Satre's leaflets.

[@murielsartre]

I love how Mrs. Conclusion speaks French to Mrs. Sartre on the phone, but when they go to see her, she's obviously an EastEnder. Michael est très mignon dans le rôle du Français discutant avec sa amie au café extérieur.

[@525Lines]

You can hit them with the book. Just friggin' brilliant.

[@Ladynipchick2]

The Pythons kept me sane throughout a difficult period in my life.. 😊

[@williamcrowe2576]

John had accidentally knocked something to the floor, and this is why he says "I beg your pardon" while still in character.

[@StefanWB]

I'm ashamed to say that I've probably seen this sketch 25-50 times, and I only just now got the "when will he be free?" joke. That's some advanced philosophy humour there.

[@Natashahoneypot]

tell me : I have not got it yet.

[@peterbrown6224]

At least you didn't spend the last sixty years on it, so cheer up.

[@johnsheehan6250]

I finally got it this time too. Ain't we sharp

[@barney6888]

@@Natashahoneypot I copied this from the net. Sartre was a critic of society, so to speak. Philosopher, writer, etc. "Sartre's pioneering combination of Existentialism and Marxism yielded a political philosophy uniquely sensitive to the tension between individual freedom and the forces of history. As a Marxist he believed that societies were best understood as arenas of struggle between powerful and powerless groups."

[@barney6888]

@@johnsheehan6250 I think it's because people don't care what others think anymore, we don't believe anyone. We've all been lied to too much. The only person I've ever known to have not lied is Jesus.

[@Pikestnt]

Probably my favourite MP sketch, and probably my favourite bit is at 3:10 when a random lady in the launderette knows John Paul Satre’s phone number from memory. 😂

[@giggityguy]

thats why i love british humor. you only get it if you deserve to!

[@josephbelisle5792]

Simply the best. They nailed humor. Speaking of nailing things, the 'romans go home' in Life of Brian' really captured this humor style. And the "Splitter!" scene.

[@aquaticko]

This is still probably my favorite Monty Python sketch ever.

[@rheinhartsilvento2576]

Same here ;-))

[@aylbdrmadison1051]

When I was a kid my friend played the record album with this skit for me before I'd ever watched an episode on the tele. We used to sing "Eric the Half a Bee" as we walked to school.

[@moviemad56]

Aylbdr Madison My son and I still sing it. :D

[@bobs_toys]

I still love bees carnally. For Eric!

[@premanadi]

@@bobs_toys Cyril Connolly?

[@MarxistKnight]

I’d love to have a dinner party with Mrs Premise, Mrs Conclusion, Mrs Essence, Mrs Syllogism, Mrs Deduction, Mrs Proposition and Mrs Cutout.

[@markpettis2896]

This has always been my favorite Monty Python sketch

[@victoriajayne91]

The man who inspired this sketch is a lecturer at my university. He told us all about this story this morning, Hooray for Bernard!

[@vincenttavani6380]

VeryVictoriaJayne Tell the story! Did he know the gents? What university?

[@4Cranleigh]

@@vincenttavani6380 Bernard Williams perhaps?

[@alecfoster4413]

I love how, in the end, they flew back home in a VC-10.

[@darkprose]

I could watch hours of these sorts of sketches, the kind where very normal, otherwise seemingly prosaic people (here housewives at the laundromat) get into unlikely esoteric discussions. Great stuff.

[@jy3n2]

You mean you don't get into esoteric discussions at the laundromat?

[@assininecomment1630]

Brilliant! 😄 I haven't ever seen this sketch before. It's _so_ fuggin' clever, and on so many levels. Love it.

[@itsenergybob8917]

One of my top three favorites. Grossly underrated.

[@Grendelbc]

Damn, I miss Monty Python.

[@pineapplepenumbra]

I still say that the goat was the hero of the piece.

[@suchpastiche312]

the fermentation of a chuckle over time bubbles up though the nose

[@occamsrayzor]

These sketches never get old

[@lsdmadman]

folks always get dialectically epistlemological in the bleedin' launders

[@CCNuck]

@aquaticko Dude, me too. I can't get over how well they play these old ladies, to the point that it's an absolute shock when John slips into his normal voice for the 'whoopie cushion' bit. Plus Michael's Madame Sartre looks like my great-grandma . . .

[@SinDemon]

One of the best parts of this sketch was somehow the extras corpsing in the background.

[@sm21454]

What I think is funny/cool about this clip (or any clip with the pepperpots) is that after a bit you don't think it's a few guys who have high-pitched voices. They become their own character, women with semi-goofy voices. "hahahahaha She says he's spent the last sixty years trying to figure that one out!" I enjoy how they don't call back aat 6, but rather travel there by raft... Yay Monty Python!

[@Belphegor82]

"He was staying there with his wife and Mr and Mr Genet". Nice and sneaky here :o)

[@premanadi]

The audience doesn't react at all! And then there is "Flat 4: Jean Genet and 'friend.'" Two Genet jokes in one sketch is a lot.

[@markschildberg1667]

Oh coitus. Probably the zenith of TV comedy.

[@macronencer]

Good old Oxbridge humour :)

[@premanadi]

The perfect way to end a sketch.

[@mjf920]

Oddly enough, this sketch is the first time I heard Girl from Ipanema. Still a great skit.

[@benjaminallan-clark174]

Brilliant. As always. A nearly 50 year-old sketch that puts American comedy to shame. AND there's a goat in it! (I wonder if it's Ken Shabby's?)

[@billcobbett9259]

It was Brian Equator's friend who brought a goat. "I only 'ope 'e don't go on the carpet"

[@johnsheehan6250]

Right you are

[@MMG-q1v]

English comedy and American comedy are very different. On The Who,e, I find English comedy funnier and, one might say, more intellectually sophisticated.

[@casard5235]

Love this sketch. Mrs. Premise and Mrs. Conclusion are bleeping hilarious. Also, it's been a long time since I could hit those high vocal notes. Cheers

[@redj1101]

I like how Mrs. Sartre doesn't speak English on the phone but suddenly knows how to when they get to the apartment

[@TracyLalonde]

This will always be one of my very, very favourite sketches.

[@comanchio1976]

I don't even remember seeing this one before. It's absolutely astonishing!

[@NeidalRuekk]

16 people had budgies fly out of their loo. Any more than that had trouble burying their cats

[@wolfyboy]

i had neither, i just "for once" didn't think it was funny, so it stopped watching, at 5:52

[@janerkenbrack3373]

This skit was only vaguely funny to me when I first saw it, way back in my early teens. I got the gist of it, these two east-end housewives arguing about Proust, and then going and visiting him. But there's a lot of great nuggets in here that need a broader education than I had yet acquired. I have referenced this skit many times, especially in reference to cat-interring, but hadn't seen this since it was first broadcast on television. Thanks for sharing it.

[@premanadi]

Not Proust, Jean-Paul Sartre. Maybe you are thinking of the Proust summarizing competition, which is a different (but brilliant) sketch.

[@mshroye2]

This episode is one of my favorites.

[@poleonil]

Strangely, even though I'm french, I've always found monty python's humor about us hilarious as hell !

[@linklgas1691]

damn finally someone that realizes that you dont have to be offended when someone memes your culture

[@chrisvardeman7047]

Only took 7 years. You should definitely organize a parade.

[@meh8982]

Yes, it's so obviously not in the least serious. And they send every aspect of the British up just as much as they do the French and everybody else.

[@mgellerster]

The conversations are both logical and absurd at the same time. I still laugh

[@andybyron1]

At 1:31 , how John didn’t burst out laughing is beyond me. Absolutely hilarious

[@davidw.3002]

This sketch got me interested in reading Jean Paul Sarte. I can say, Monty Python is responsible for more interest in reading than grammar school and high-school combined.

[@HughKAyers]

I had some old-fashioned relatives who found this VERY offensive. This one in particular. I don't think they liked me memorizing it either.

[@brk932]

all of the above ... a Marxist is a wanking philosopher

[@eksortso]

Would your relatives be offended at Monty Python in general? The Sartre references? The socialist banter? The heavy handed regional marketing? The obsessed receptionist spraying her boobs? Mrs. Sartre pronouncing "vin" instead of "vahn"? Cuz that last one set me off.

[@idfx1000]

I love this sketch and find it absolutely hilarious, but of course it is offensive to some extent by today's standards: it's based on the premise that housewives are too ignorant and dumb to have this kind of conversation at all, and have no business speaking French, making phone calls to Budapest or Paris, vacationing in Ibiza, etc. Not to mention these atrocious voices.

[@davesulphate4497]

@1dfx1000, I dont think it is based on the idea that housewives are ignorant or dumb. Its more the absurdity of two random people meeting up and going off on a random tangent with a series of absurd connections,like knowing Jean-Paul Sartre personally while discussing his philosophical writings. I think you are reading more into this than was meant by the writers.

[@idfx1000]

@@davesulphate4497 what I mentioned was certainly not meant by the writers indeed, I was simply answering and stating why I find it understandable that some might find this offensive. Most comedy from 30 or 40 years back certainly is, to an extent, by today's standards at least.

[@kambrose1549]

WHittaker take off had me in stitches!

[@dougsooleyphotography]

My brother and I stayed up late on Sunday to watch on the UHF channel in Chicago. Amazingly, neither of us grew up to be drag queens.

[@ge2623]

Ditto. We ignored snowflakes then.

[@WildBluntHickok]

I just love this one for the cat joke at the beginning. That and the first way to put a budgie down.

[@jessiethegeek]

this is such a cool sketch lol. i love how john and graham just tower over micheal. And graham chapman as a pepperpot is genius. LOL

[@yogagirlnh]

Plain: "you're not a Marxist type are you?" Chapman: "no! I'm a revisionist!"

[@ΛαλίλαΣπυροπούλου]

yogagirlnh v

[@Knightfall8]

probably autocorrect problems

[@vanessaretzlaff6755]

yogagirlnh "

[@IanSinclairTaiChi]

I laughed out loud at that one. I am glad I'm not the only one.

[@Nickanj]

"Well, it's not at all a well cat...."

[@MJK1965]

They were going to Paris, and wound up in Iceland?! Bloody MapQuest!! :)

[@ge2623]

"Oh, Intercourse the penguin!"

[@pakey423]

Oh, coitus!

[@Notmehimorthem]

I have now profoundly changed my view of Jean Paul Satre. Thank you for these insights.

[@virgiljjacas1229]

I am been watching this since I was eighteen and I am sixty eight years young.

[@Kelly14UK]

Love cats but that's hilarious shit at the start.

[@greg55666]

I just found another joke! Missed this one entirely until just now! "huge soiled budgies flying out of people's lavatories infringing on their 'personal freedom'"--hahaha!

[@stevenwithanS]

Commonly referred to as shit hawks, lol.

[@billcobbett9259]

See everything....

[@premanadi]

Chapman was meant to say 'huge flocks of soiled budgies,' not 'flocks of huge soiled budgies.' He got it right on the album version.

[@greg55666]

@@premanadi How do you know.

[@premanadi]

@@greg55666 Because I have the album. And because it makes perfect sense, because he says "they breed in the sewers," so you would get huge flocks of them. It doesn't make particular sense that they would grow to massive individual size. Also, Chapman was drunk all the time and fucked up his lines, but on the album he would be reading from a script and they could do retakes and get it all perfect.

[@YEAGERMACH100]

I can't believe that's Chapman, he looks totally unrecognizable!

[@hexonatapeloop]

How can you go off and join Frelimo when you've got nine installments left on the fridge

[@tors396]

I remember seeing this with subs. The translator translated budgie with the word "dog". And apparently you could either hit it with the book or shoot it, right there just above the beak. Didn't he/she realise that a budgie must be a bird :) also a dog (at least not here) could not easily be flushed down into the sewers, through the toilet.

[@lairx]

*and* they don't breed in the sewers, do they?

[@tors396]

Or do the they, I haven't really thought about that XD Maybe the translator wanted to warn us of evil smelling packs of soiled dogs jumping out of peoples lavatories infringing their personal freedom..... well now I will look twice the next time I use the toilet... just to be sure

[@lairx]

won't use a toilet since reading _It_ from Stephen King :D

[@kathybramley5609]

Teenage mutant ninja budgies!

[@peterk.6093]

With MP humor you could expect anything.

[@Markus_Pis]

Thank God there's the script for most of it. As a non-native speaker I didn't understand a word. Which is a shame because they are really awesome.

[@stanochocki8984]

Still one of the best sketches ever...a pure, absurdist allegory that 'hits-the-nail-on-the-head' of the state of Current Politics--from the la-de-da Eurozone, the children of Satre; to America. LOL...ust how many viewers get the 'in-joke' about Mr. and Mr. Genet? Few...very, very few....

[@joedellinger9437]

Please explain it!

[@premanadi]

Nobody in the audience seems to notice it...and there is the second Genet joke: Flat four, Jean Genet and 'friend.'

[@premanadi]

@@joedellinger9437 Jean Genet was gay.

[@JimTLonW6]

@barrytron3030 When this was first broadcast it pretty well altered London's life. We used to go to the pub up until Monty Python time, at which point we would all, plus assorted hangers on troop back to our flat. I remember one bemused French lady saying 'but all zese people, zey live in that flat?" MP seems just as funny today though.

[@mgellerster]

Reminds me of the scene from Annie Hall where Woody brings in Marshall McCluhan to a conversation

[@feraldarryl]

It certainly does look like him, although he isn't in the credits for this episode. David Jason was also in the 60's tv series 'Do Not Adjust Your Set' with Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin.

[@dharmaseed]

It's just gone 8:00, and time for the pengiun on top of your set to explode.

[@revkenordquist]

One of my favorites.

[@javakogan]

I just love this.... Thank you for posting!

[@HookedOnSonics518]

I love how they bust out singing "The Girl From Ipanema". LOL

[@ReyaitheShadowWolf]

Hello Mrs. Cutout!

[@moxie96]

Note she was cutting outta there!

[@laurierusch8714]

This is my favorite Kills me every single time.

[@Znwarp]

And now for something completely different

[@cinemaipswich4636]

Who said philosophy wasn't fun. Having the "Common" housewife as arbiters in this sketch is pure Pythonesque.

[@BethGoth15]

I adore men in drag, but there's something just so unsexy about John in a dress. Which I think makes it a million times funnier! XD

[@meh8982]

None of the Pepperpots are meant to be sexy! Quite the opposite. Terry Jones used to say in drag he looked just like his mother.

[@kuriouskaytee26]

"Good Morning Mrs. Cutout!" xD

[@Astralfirework]

Budgerigars (or budgies) are like parakeets - small birds commonly sold at pet shops.

[@ReyaitheShadowWolf]

Ah coitus!

[@ColonelMcboot]

THEY BREED IN THE SEWERS!!!!

[@MJK1965]

The look on John Cleese's Face when Michael Palin is explaining about the budgie being flushed down the loo is priceless. :)

[@premanadi]

That's Graham Chapman, not Michael Palin.

[@faklempt1]

this one's even better than Mrs. Thing and Mrs. Entity

[@barney6888]

Back again for another rewatch of "When Genius Walks on Rocks in High Heels".

[@joephillips1994]

"We're going to have to have our budgie put down" "Really, is it very old?" "No, we just don't like it..." Hilarious :')

[@QueenBoadicea]

I'm never seen this Monty Python skit before now. Maybe it's maybe because of that bit about killing your cat in the beginning. I'm betting PETA would be verra upset by that one.

[@SteRoKra]

"when will he be free? she says he spent the last 60 years trying to work that one out!" hahaha

[@allonszenfantsjones]

I actually saw Sartre on the sidewalk in Paris in 1968 and I can attest yes he was a grumpy lad. Didn't want to be recognized at all.

[@barney6888]

I'm wondering if Mrs. Varley was played by Rowan Atkinson, and, does anyone know what Graham Chapman's last words in this sketch are? I can't make them out.

[@KateMcT]

Love this, though I had to look up 'budgie' For any Americans wondering, Mrs. Conclusion (Chapman) aka the Woman in the Kerchief is talking about getting rid of what we would call a parakeet.

[@RockyRoader]

@Pennywisea It's "The girl from Ipanema" - the 'on-hold' music, I presume, though I'm surprised there was Hold music back then. Quality sketch!