Title: Spam
Original Airdate: 15/12/1970
First, the opening scene to the The Black Eagle.
And now for something completely different, it's: a foreign tourist with a bad phrase book ("Dirty Hungarian Phrasebook"), courtroom nonsense, the quiz show World Forum where tonight all the contestants just happen to be seminal figures in Communism, several failed attempts to film a scene taking place during the First Battle of Ypres, people in paintings going on strike, that same Ypres scene from before getting filmed properly now, the hospital for over-actors, Gumby flower arrangement, and a couple trying to order breakfast but the wife is put off by the menu ("Spam").
Tropes:
- As Long as It Sounds Foreign: The Hungarian phrase read by tobacconist is a string of vaguely Eastern European sounding gibberish.
- Bait-and-Switch:
- The "World Forum" sketch appears to be a panel on Communism featuring Karl Marx, Lenin, Mao Tse Tung and Che Guevara. It turns out to be a quiz show where the questions are mostly about sports.
- Also the beginning of the episode, which appears to be the opening credits to an old pirate movie. And this goes on for about five minutes until Cleese finally appears to say "And now for something..." People expecting to watch Monty Python were certainly confused and then fooled.
- Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: "Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and Spam; egg bacon and Spam; egg bacon sausage and Spam; Spam bacon sausage and Spam; Spam egg Spam Spam bacon and Spam; Spam sausage Spam Spam bacon Spam tomato and Spam..." Taken even further when one customer tries to order a Spam-filled dish with the single non-Spam item replaced with more Spam:Waitress: You mean [you want] Spam Spam Spam Spam Spam Spam Spam, Spam, Spam Spam Spam Spam and Spam?
Vikings: Lovely Spaaaam, wonderful Spaaaaaaam... - Brick Joke: The Hungarian reappears in the "Spam" sketch, and somehow his faulty phrasebook gives the phrase, "My intestines explode with Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, tomato, Spam, Spam, Spam..."
- Chewing the Scenery: The padre from the Ypres sketch, which lands him in a hospital that treats overacting.
- Credits Gag:
- In the opening credits for fake movie "The Black Eagle", one of the actresses is named "Tinea Pedis"—the medical term for athlete's foot.
- In the end credits, all of the cast and crew members have Spam and other food items inserted into their names.
- Does Not Like Spam: Mrs. Bun in the "Spam" sketch, though her husband and the singing Vikings love it. The Trope Namer.
- Don't Like? Don't Read!: In the "Spam" sketch, Mrs. Bun tries to order one of the Spam-filled dishes with the Spam removed, and argues with the waitress over it, despite there being two items on the menu with no Spam in them, one of which was exactly what she was trying to order.
- Drawing Straws: The Ypres 1914 starts with this, and Graham's Colonel does everything he can to prevent making a Heroic Sacrifice. The affair devolves into a version of "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe" and Rock–Paper–Scissors.
- Fake-Out Opening: The episode opens with the credits and the first few minutes of The Black Eagle, which appears to be a swashbuckling epic supposedly based on a book by Captain Blood author Rafael Sabatini, probably fooling 1970 audiences into thinking Flying Circus had been re-scheduled at short notice yet again.note But as soon as the smugglers in the opening scene reach the top of the cliff from which they have been signalled, we see the announcer at his desk.
- Fun with Foreign Languages: The episode contains the trope-naming sketch for My Hovercraft Is Full of Eels.
- Greasy Spoon: The setting of "Spam", the Green Midget cafe.
- Ho Yay: Invoked between Karl Marx and Che Guevara.
- Incessant Chorus: The Spam Vikings. "Lovely Spam, wonderful Spaaaaam..." "Bloody Vikings!"
- Language Barrier: Oh, the poor tobacconist and the poor Hungarian, trapped in malicious trickster translation of a Hungarian-English phrasebook.
- Large Ham: In-universe, John Cleese's padre in the First World War sketch... so much so that he is taken to a hospital for "Over-acting".
- Literal Ass-Kissing: The Dirty Hungarian Phrasebook is available at Her Majesty's Stationary Office for the price of a kiss on the bum.
- Match Cut: From a Gumby trying to cram flowers in a vase to a woman stuffing a chicken at the beginning of the Spam sketch.
- My Hovercraft Is Full of Eels: Trope Namer.
- Penultimate Outburst: "If there's any more Stock Footage of women applauding, I shall clear the court!"
- Rock–Paper–Scissors: And one of the players has no arms.
- Shout-Out: One of the mistranslated phrases in the "Dirty Hungarian Phrasebook" is "If I said you had a beautiful body, would you hold it against me?", which is something Groucho Marx would often say when hosting You Bet Your Life.
- Smoking Hot Sex: The last shot of the episode implies this.
- Strike Episode: The "Art on Strike" sketch.
- The Stinger: After the end credits there's a quick shot of Karl Marx and Che Guevara in bed together.
- Trapped Behind Enemy Lines: The "Ypres 1914" sketch.
- Trivially Obvious: Gumby's advice for flower arrangement is to "ARRANGE THEM! NICELY! IN A VASE!" [crams flowers into vase bloom-first]
- Trolling Translator: The "Dirty Hungarian Phrasebook" sketch had a phrasebook that gave bogus translations from Hungarian to English, such as translating the Hungarian "Can you direct me to the station?"note into the English "please fondle my bum". The publisher of this phrasebook was taken to court for "breach of the peace".
- Unexpectedly Obscure Answer: Played With. The communists are asked about the name of the song that Teddy Johnson and Pearl Carr wrote for the 1959 Eurovision Song Contest. While the other contestants draw a blank, Mao Tse Tung gives the correct answer: "Sing Little Birdie". In real life however, the winning song from that year was the Netherlands' "Een Beetje" ("A Little Bit"); "Sing Little Birdie" came in second place.
