Recap / Monty Pythons Flying Circus S 1 E 3

Title: How to Recognise Different Types of Trees From Quite a Long Way Away

Original Airdate: 19/10/1969

Guest starring: Carol Cleveland, Donna Reading^note It's Reading, not Cleveland as is often assumed, who plays the sexy "Milkman Seducer", Ian Davidson

It's: A program on how to recognise different types of trees from quite a long way away ("The Larch"), courtroom antics featuring Cardinal Richelieu, "Bicycle Repairman", inappropriate children's stories, the Restaurant Sketch ("The Dirty Fork"), a seduced milkman ("Seduced Milkman"), a kidnapped newsreader, and a man making insinuations about another man's wife ("Wink Wink Nudge Nudge").

The restaurant sketch was one of the ones recreated in the Python feature film And Now For Something Completely Different.

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Tropes:

• Angry Chef: "The Dirty Fork" sketch had Mungo the chef (John Cleese) going after two customers with a butcher knife after they complained about said dirty cutlery. "No, Mungo! Not again!"
• Anti-Climax: Several audible groans followed the punch-line for the Restaurant Sketch: "Lucky we didn't say anything about the dirty knife!"
• Audience Murmurs: "CONSTERNATION! UPROAR!"
• Berserk Button:
  • Don't mention anything about dirty forks in one particular restaurant.
  • The announcer of the "Bicycle Repairman" sketch seems to have an issue with Communism.
• Bait-and-Switch: "And now... Number Three... The Larch... And now... The horse chestnut."
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: In-Universe; while the judge, the clerk, and the fake Cardinal Richelieu all join Inspector Dim in singing "If I Were Not in the C.I.D.", when the barrister starts to sing his own verse, they all look at him as if he's insane. When he realizes this, the barrister sits down, and the knight with the chicken hits him over the head.
• Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: In one sketch, Eric Idle (as a children's television presenter) reads from a book of what seems to be children's fairy tales, but turns out to be barely-disguised pornography.

  Rumple-Tweezer ran the Dinky-Tinky shop in the foot of the Magic Oak Tree, by the Wobbly Dum-Dum Bush, in the shade of the Magic Glade down in Dingly-Dell. Here, he sold contraceptives and- (Double Take)

• By "No", I Mean "Yes": In the "Nudge Nudge" sketch:
  Him: Look, are you insinuating something?
  Norman: Oh, no, no...Yes.
• Cheating with the Milkman: A milkman approaches the door and is greeted by a negligee wearing woman who invites him inside; instead of bringing him in for sex, she locks him in the bedroom as part of her collection.
• Chewing the Scenery: The sketch involving the dirty fork contains tons of this.
• Clothes Make the Superman: Inverted with a city populated by men dressed as Superman. Only one of them — F.G. Superman — is actually Bicycle Repairman, who comes in to the rescue whenever a bicycle breaks down.^note Or threatened by International Communism.
• Comic Sutra: "With a melon??"
• Development Gag: The punchline in "The Dirty Fork" was based on Cleese and Chapman's experience writing a similar sketch for How to Irritate People. They thought the sketch would work better with no punchline, but executive producer David Frost insisted that they include one, resulting in the sketch ending with a punchline that made the "dirty knife" seem like a masterpiece by comparison.
• Dirty Commies: The voiceover announcer for "Bicycle Repairman" gets distracted at the end of the sketch by his rage at Communists, only to calm down immediately when his wife calls him for tea.
• Entendre Failure: The basis of the "Nudge Nudge" sketch.
• Head-Tiltingly Kinky: In the Storytime sketch. "...with a melon?!"
• I Have a Family: At his trial, Mr. Larch begins his speech by mentioning that he has a wife and six kids.
• Lampshaded Double Entendre: "Nudge nudge, wink wink, say no more, say no more".
• Large Ham: Mr. Larch gives an impassioned speech about freedom at his trial ... which is for a parking offence. The Supermen also count.
• Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: The Pythons didn't think to get permission from DC Comics for using Superman as part of the "Bicycle Repair Man" sketch, and worried afterward. No lawsuit was forthcoming (possibly due to Fair Use by way of parody/satire, and because the sketch did no harm to the brand).
• Make the Dog Testify: The counsel for Mr. Larch brings the following witnesses to testify; Fiona Lewis, who is only interested in gossip ("I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so anyway..."), a dead person, and Cardinal Richelieu, who turns out to be a fake.
• Mundane Made Awesome: In a World… where everyone is Superman, being a Bicycle Repairman able to repair a bike with his bare hands becomes awesome indeed.
• No Indoor Voice: Mungo the chef (from the "Dirty Fork" sketch; see also That Makes Me Feel Angry).
• Noodle Implements: "With a melon!?"
• Once for Yes, Twice for No: Mr. Aldridge, one of the witnesses in Mr. Larch's trial, is more or less dead, and communicates in this way from inside his coffin. That is, until his lawyer points out that he's dead, at which point he dies for real.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Mungo the chef delivers an over-the-top rant towards the customer that merely wanted a cleaner fork.
• Running Gag: "The larch."
• Secret Identity Change Trick: In "Bicycle Repairman".
• Subverted Kids' Show: One called Storytime goes awry as the host (Eric Idle) realizes that all the cutesy stories in the book he's reading from are actually erotica, complete with illustrations (see Comic Sutra above). Hilariously, the title of the book is What People Do All Day (a real children's book by Richard Scarry).
• That Makes Me Feel Angry: The chef in the "Dirty Fork" sketch.
  John Cleese: You bastards! You vicious, heartless bastards! Look what you've done to him! He's worked his fingers to the bone to make this place what it is, and you come in with your petty, feeble quibbling and you grind him into the dirt! This fine, honorable man whose boots you are not worthy to kiss! (Beat) Oh, it makes me mad. MAD!!!
• That Reminds Me of a Song: When the judge praises Inspector Dim and says someone with his abilities could easily be something other than a policeman, that's Inspector Dim's cue to sing "If I Were not in the C.I.D."^note done to the tune of the old vaudeville song "If I Were Not Upon the Stage"
• Unsatisfiable Customer: One sketch inverts this and has Unsatisfiable Waitstaff, who angst over one dirty fork, resulting in utter carnage.
• Unsound Effect: Several of these in the "Bicycle Repairman" sketch: SCREW! BEND! INFLATE! ALTER SADDLE!
• What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: Subverted. Bicycle Repairman's power (to mend bikes really quickly) is incredibly useful in a world where everyone else is Superman.