Title: Salad Days
Original Airdate: 30/11/1972
And now, it's: high flying hero Biggles dictating a letter, mountaineers attempting to scale Uxbridge Road, nosy old women, the television show ''Storage Jars'', a cartoon of a television ruining a man's eyes, a recap of the show, a man trying to buy cheese at an empty cheese shop ("Cheese Shop Sketch") and a preview of Sam Peckinpah's Salad Days.
There is then an apology for the previous sketch and finally, an interlude.
Tropes:
- Annoying Background Event: At the beginning of the cheeseshop sketch, we see two men dancing in the shop accompanied by a bouzouki, occasionally visible in different camera shots. As Cleese's patience slowly erodes due to the lack of cheese in the shop, he finally snaps at them to stop the music.
- Bloodier and Gorier: Parodied and taken hilariously up to eleven in the "Salad Days" sketch, which is a supposed film version of the incredibly twee, upperclass, turn-of-the-century stage play — Directed by Sam Peckinpah. Bloody Hilarious.
- Camp Gay: Ginger in the first sketch, although he insists he is not.
- Disaster Dominoes: An animation shows a plane knocking off a ball on a spire results into a chain of events causing a line of buildings to fall like dominoes.
- Eye Scream: An animation showcases various nasty looking devices popping out of a TV and damaging his eyes.
- Freudian Excuse: After "Sam Peckinpah's Salad Days", a fake apology appears, stating that the creators "all come from broken homes and have very unhappy personal lives, especially Eric."
- Fun with Subtitles: The subtitles around the "Salad Days" sketch, which criticize film critic Philip Jenkinson for constantly sniffing, then laugh at him when he gets shot for his constant sniffing.
- Implausible Deniability: The Cheese Shop owner's ever-versatile list of reasons as to why his cheese shop seems entirely untouched by even a single gram of cheese, right down to the cat having just eaten some.
- Incessant Music Madness: In the Cheese Shop sketch, when John Cleese's character enters, there are three guys playing Greek music on a bouzouki and dancing. After several minutes of the annoying music in the background, he turns around and yells, "Will you shut that bloody dancing up!?" and they stop playing.
- Less Embarrassing Term: From the first sketch—Miss Bladder: I'm not a courtesan!
Biggles (Graham Chapman): Courtesan? Oh, oh, aren't we grand? Harlot's not good enough for us, eh? Paramour, concubine, fille de joie, that's what we're not. Well, you listen to me, my fine fellow, you are a bit of tail, that's what you are!
Miss Bladder: I am not, you demented fictional character.
Biggles: Algy says you are. He says you're no better than you should be.
Miss Bladder: And how would he know?
Biggles: And just what do you mean by that? Are you calling my old fictional comrade-in-arms a fairy?
Miss Bladder: Fairy? Poof's not good enough for Algy, is it? He's got to be a bleedin' fairy! Mincing old RAF queen! - Long List: The Cheese Shop sketch is John Cleese listing out every kind of cheese in the vain hopes there might be some for his consumption.
- Made of Plasticine: "Sam Peckinpah's Salad Days" has a peaceful summer scene ruined due to the participants all being this, accidentally maiming and dismembering each other.
- Mood Whiplash: After the very bloody "Sam Peckinpah's Salad Days" and closing credits, the last few minutes of the show are of waves crashing on a shore, occasionally interrupted by Cleese dressed as a Trojan knight apologising for the pause because there is no more funny stuff in the show.
- Newscaster Cameo: Richard Baker appears once again as himself near the end, reading an item about storage jars, and getting to deliver the episode's Running Gag: "Lemon curry?"
- Piano Drop: Several of the characters in the "Sam Peckinpah's Salad Days" sketch get crushed by a piano.
- Precision F-Strike: In the live version of the Cheese Shop sketch, John Cleese's character doesn't care how fucking runny the shop's brie might be, just that it be handed over. In the original TV version, he doesn't care how excrementally runny the Camembert is.
- Relax-o-Vision: The last few minutes of the episode are of waves crashing along a shore.
- Riding into the Sunset: The Cheese Shop sketch ends with Stock Footage of a cowboy riding into the sunset.
- Running Gag: "Lemon curry?"
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: The first part of the "Cheese Shop" sketch:Mousebender: I was sitting in the public library in Thurmond Street just now, skimming through Rogue Herries by Horace Walpole, when suddenly I came over all peckish.
Wensleydale: Peckish, sir?
Mousebender: Esurient.
Wensleydale: Eh?
Mousebender: (in broad Yorkshire accent) Eee, I were all 'ungry-loike!
Wensleydale: Ah! Hungry!
Mousebender: (in his normal voice) In a nutshell. So, I thought to myself, "A little fermented curd will do the trick." So, I curtailed my Walpolling activities, sallied forth, and infiltrated your place of purveyance to negotiate the vending of some cheesy comestibles.
Wensleydale: Come again?
Mousebender: (in broad Northern accent) I want to buy some cheese!
Wensleydale: Oh! I thought you were complaining about the music. - Shout-Out: "Sam Peckinpah's Salad Days" is a parody of the West End musical Salad Days as well as the films of Spaghetti Western director Sam Peckinpah, who often used slow-motion blood spurting violent scenes.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: "Sam Peckinpah's Salad Days" has a nice cheery piano number to match the bright scenery, which is totally opposed to the carnage that takes place.
- What a Senseless Waste of Human Life: Invoked by John Cleese's character in the "Cheese Shop" sketch after he shoots the shopkeeper of a cheese shop, because he just found out that the shop is completely devoid of cheese after five minutes of questioning the shopkeeper.
