Secret Policeman's Ball: Peter Cook and John Cleese 'Interesting Facts'

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In this clip: Peter Cook winds John Cleese up something chronic, from the 1979 Ball.

[@petejones879]

I love Peters deadpan delivery on every comment he makes

[@MaskedMan66]

It's fun to see when he gets close to breaking up, which isn't often, but fun when it does happen.

[@NeilWalker-t8r]

I think that's the key to the EL Wisty character, comes out with such nonsense but does it all with a straight face

[@MaskedMan66]

@@NeilWalker-t8r EL Wisty?

[@rosanneshinkle4133]

Hysterical. Never tire of these skits.

[@TheGoldennach]

The guy telling all the interesting facts is like KZbin with all the recommended videos

[@MaskedMan66]

His name is Peter Cook.

[@Serai3]

Two geniuses. So brilliant.

[@christosvoskresye]

I would double the number of thumbs up, if I could.

[@golden.lights.twinkle2329]

Peter Cook would have made a fantastic Doctor Who.

[@joandar1]

I can just imagine what the Dr would be able to do. I am A fan of both,. John Australia.

[@ikmarchini]

Such a plethora of talents John Cleese can play straight man.

[@JillHayling]

I was there. Fab night with them. I worked a BBC World Service and we got in for this great production . So Funny 😆✔️

[@fatty_owls]

you're so lucky 😭a lot of my favourite comedians died before I was born 😭😭

[@dukecraig2402]

The ironic thing is Peter Cook died from his intestine bursting.

[@dannymccune1888]

If elephants could leap, pound for pound, as high as crickets, it would be a good idea to avoid startling them.

[@MaskedMan66]

"Drat!" says Peter Cook from beyond. "I wish I'd thought of that!"

[@Baribrotzer]

There aren't very many people who John Cleese would honor by playing the straight man to. Peter Cook was one of them.

[@MaskedMan66]

He played the straight man more than you might think.

[@Baribrotzer]

@@MaskedMan66 He does have a perfect straight man face and presence - which makes his performance in Clockwise all the funnier: Wherein he plays a school administrator of great rectitude, suffers one disaster after another, and winds up four hours late delivering a completely mangled version of a formal address to a conference in his underwear.

[@MaskedMan66]

@@Baribrotzer I've heard of that movie, but never seen it. Do you recommend it, then?

[@Realbillball]

That is just so f***ing brilliantly funny.

[@victorriceroni8455]

Oh damn, that is hysterical.

[@jeanmyers1787]

Peter Cook was amazing, I’m not dissing John Cleese, also very funny but Peter Cook absolute genius

[@troystaunton254]

Well John Cleese is playing the straight man to Pete’s jokester.

[@terrythekittieful]

JC made a comment that he (and sometimes with Graham Chapman) would take a whole day to write a sketch whereas Peter Cook could knock one off in an hour. High praise.

[@Arareemote]

​​@@terrythekittieful"a 3-minute sketch in 3 minutes." Was Cleese's comment if I recall

[@terrythekittieful]

@@Arareemote I wonder if 'Squatter and the Ant' was one of those ready made sketches? I love that one.

[@josephloehr9617]

John starts laughing and Peter sticks him a bit more

[@davereeves454]

Love seeing cleese trying to keep it together. Lol

[@Diamonddavej]

All these facts are true according to legend.

[@USERID412-k7n]

Yeah. They absotively, posilutely must be true. Otherwise, they wouldn't be allowed to remain on the internet.

[@tdsims1963]

OMG, I have actually met someone like this!! Comedy gold.

[@robertmoreland6156]

The BBC or comedy clubs would never recognise their talents in today’s world. I’m so lucky to be old enough, when these genius’s were allowed to preform. 😂😂😷👍

[@joandar1]

Well Said as they did perform well, John, Australia.

[@oxymoxym7371]

They're sending up those institutions. Which retroactively brought about the conditions you describe in today's reality.. Lying with absurd explanations about factual things with a straight face.

[@fatty_owls]

I'm so lucky to have parents who showed me Monty Python when I was 8. Otherwise I would be watching Mean Girls and Twilight like the rest of my miserable year group (I'm 14). My parents never knew about Peter Cook, so I'm so glad he did stuff with Monty Python or I would have never discovered him. (He's now my favourite comedian along with John Cleese)

[@voiskumbeaver3285]

"Allowed"

[@Elitist20]

In the alleged Good Old Days of the 70s, Pete and Dud actually did nearly get banned when they did their show 'Behind the Fridge' on Australian television. When will someone do a satire on the whinging 'You couldn't say that today with all this wokeness gone mad!' KZbin commenters?

[@azapro911]

I think of this every time Jeremy Clarkson does his adenoids gags.

[@clayz1]

The guy who wants to read the paper vs the guy who has no clue. The rock and a hard place.

[@Larsskoldebjer]

Peter Cook is a Genius!

[@krisbrants9461]

When Peter Cook started talking, somehow I felt he shouldve been cast as Dolorous Edd in Game of Thrones

[@MrLambertinho]

just dig him up first

[@jimbodeathgrip]

How Cleese stayed straight was amazing.

[@YaNevrNo]

These always crack me up.

[@Groucho-tg1tx]

All I have to do is look at john Cleese, and I roll over..

[@fuzzballzz36]

Long live E. L. Wisty!

[@juliangarner56]

A couple of people here forgot to activate their funny bone.

[@Powerneck]

Comedy Genius 😎

[@colinbaker3916]

Two different comedic styles. Cleese was versed in thoroughly rehearsed material, whereas Cook loved going off script and could ad lib magnificently like this. All the other performer could do is try to keep up, only coming in where necessary with ad libs of his own.

[@colinbaker3916]

True. Part of the reason why he was such a genius. Cleese would sometimes go off script in performances of The Parrot Sketch to make Michael Palin corpse. It makes the whole thing even funnier.

[@chriselyr2484]

@@colinbaker3916 Mr Palin corpsing just makes those performances funnier though :) Especially when he tries to make Mr Cleese laugh in return by over exaggerating his facial expressions and pronunciations. There is a genuine sense of warmth in the performances of this generation of comics

[@ikmarchini]

That's why Cleese has a newspaper- to hide his giggles.

[@kevinogracia1615]

Cook and Cleese boils down to Classic.

[@kt9166]

Thank God Cleese had the newspaper just in case he couldn't keep a straight face!

[@markturner3893]

Peter Cooke reminds me of Johnny Rotten

[@kevindoran9389]

I was just about to say it, he actually looks a bit like him too.

[@MrLeglamp]

That's because they're both dead.

[@Elitist20]

I'd never noticed it before, but YES! The smile as he goes in for the kill...

[@sureshot8399]

@@MrLeglamp Johnny Rotten aka John Lydon is very much alive and kicking.

[@maxpower789z]

Mawwaige!

[@davebentley4829]

yes you do,he was right about that one.

[@opensourceintelligence]

wow!

[@donaldmcdaniel1773]

Interesting

[@Theodoric93]

But what of the Holiday Bombs Fear?!

[@krisscanlon4051]

Cook vs Cleese is too funny and too tall chaps...uptight vs absurd 😂

[@rottenapple6109]

Tes-TY- nawl Mawd- ling.

[@hitsnooze771]

Cleese saying "fornicating" instead of "fucking" is interesting.

[@seansmith3058]

It's a better insult

[@sureshot8399]

@@seansmith3058 It is.

[@alexfletcher5192]

This is John Cleese (one of the great figures of post-war British comedy) appearing alongside one of his inspirations; a man who could apparently write a 6 minute sketch - this is shorter - in 6 minutes. No British male should be able to do this without giving up masturbation.

[@dukecraig2402]

The ironic thing is Peter Cook died from his intestine bursting.

[@markschroeder5559]

Tell us a story daddy Night Night

[@atulbhatt7386]

If a doctor had to market himself.

[@Confused_Philosopher]

For one thing the intestines are after the stomach. So it doesn't take 4 hrs to get to your stomach. once you swallow it's in your stomach.

[@sureshot8399]

You are assuming the direction of travel.

[@dielaughing73]

Next you'll tell me a whale isn't an insect

[@Confused_Philosopher]

@@dielaughing73 It's an insect that God got wrong? LOL

[@gruff824]

The penguins made me do it, sorry ,?

[@irenemax3574]

"Arable land... it's tilled by Arabs." 😅

[@catherinelynnfraser2001]

Is that a fact?

[@soulpanther9]

That explains why humans should never eat food left out for more than a few hours. If fresh food reaches your stomach in four hours......well.....yeah.

[@frankmurphyburr3598]

Intestinal modeling 😅

[@Kwippy]

He's wrong about the whale. It's a mammal, and that IS a fact.

[@jimbeckwith5949]

ThewayICit are you some kind of idiot? It's a well established fact that whales are actually REPTILES and originated on Mars..... and you are an absolutely humourless pedantic got.

[@josh2Sides2]

You mean git!

[@yan24to]

You are the most boring, cloth eared,flatulent

[@Elitist20]

That was a joke.

[@baldbollocks]

Not the slitest bit funny.

[@ginskimpivot753]

Never took to this and Python. Utter rubbish.

[@shadowlandstudios86]

So sad.

[@gaylasmith5279]

You've absolutely no sense of humour. Sorry for you. These gentlemen are beyond brilliant.

[@Wilkins_Micawber]

This humour wasn't funny the first time I saw it originally on TV. Do you know? It still isn't funny.

[@jane---489]

*_No one "Knows," and "know" one cares what you think ..._*

[@cautionTosser]

Seems no one could work with Cook without some sort of prop to cover the inevitable break (newspaper, sandwich, etc...) he was a formidable foe/partner :)