Mr Creosote

Mr. Creosote (Terry Jones), with the maître d' (John Cleese, right) and second waiter (Eric Idle, left)

Mr. Creosote is a fictional character who appears in Monty Python's The Meaning of Life. Creosote is a monstrously obese restaurant patron who is served a vast amount of food while vomiting repeatedly. After being persuaded to eat an after-dinner mint, he explodes in a very graphic way. The sketch is the first part of "Part VI: The Autumn Years" of the film.

The character is played by Terry Jones (who is also the director of the film).

Synopsis

In the sketch, Mr. Creosote dines at a French restaurant. The entrance of this morbidly obese middle-aged man is accompanied by ominous music and is followed by a short dialogue with the maître d', played by John Cleese:

Maître d'	Ah, good afternoon, sir; and how are we today?
Mr. Creosote	Better.
Maître d'	Better?
Mr. Creosote	Better get a bucket, I'm gonna throw up.

Creosote is then led to his table, and once seated starts projectile-vomiting, failing to hit the bucket he had requested a moment before. The floor quickly becomes covered in vomit, and so do the cleaning woman and the maître d's trousers. Creosote listens patiently while highlights of the evening's menu are recited to him; after vomiting on the menu held open in front of him by the maître d', he orders all of the dishes listed by the maitre d'. As a result, he is served moules marinières, pâté de foie gras, beluga caviar, eggs benedict, a leek tart, frogs' legs amandine and quail's eggs on a bed of mushrooms all mixed in a bucket with the quail eggs on top and a double helping of pâté. The appetizers are followed by the main course of jugged hare, with a sauce of truffles, bacon, Grand Marnier, anchovies and cream. For apéritifs, Mr. Creosote has six bottles of Château Latour 1945, a double jeroboam of champagne, and half a dozen crates of brown ale – considerably less than his usual allowance.

He finishes the feast, and several other courses, vomiting profusely all over himself, his table, and the restaurant's staff throughout his meal, causing other diners to lose their appetite (in some cases, even throwing up themselves). Finally, after being persuaded by the smooth maître d' to eat a "wafer-thin mint", he explodes, covering the restaurant and diners with innards and partially digested food – even starting a "vomit-wave" among the other diners, who leave in disgust.

When the explosion clears, Creosote is still alive, but his chest cavity is now blasted open, revealing his spread ribs and still-beating heart. As he looks around, seemingly confused by what has just happened, the maître d' calmly walks up to him and presents "the cheque, monsieur."

Reception

Despite his own proclivity toward gruesome or "wet" film violence, director Quentin Tarantino has confessed to being nauseated by this scene, although critics with stronger stomachs have praised its dark humour (Leonard Maltin declared it "an unforgettable scene, like it or not"). It was filmed in the Porchester Centre, a public building owned by the City of Westminster on Porchester Road, London.

The copious amounts of simulated vomit were created by blending a mixture of ground potatoes with water and other coarse vegetable materials.

In the documentary The Meaning of Making 'The Meaning of Life (2003), John Cleese said that the sketch, originally written by Jones and Palin, was initially rejected. Cleese said the sketch suffered from a flawed construction and rewrote it with Graham Chapman. At the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival – Tribute to Monty Python it was claimed Cleese was taken with the unflappable maître d' character. Jones thought Creosote should be played by fellow Python Terry Gilliam, before Gilliam persuaded Jones to play the role instead.

Bibliography

• Carroll, Noël (2006). "What Mr. Creosote Knows About Laughter". In Hardcastle, Gary L. and Reisch, George A. Monty Python and Philosophy: Nudge Nudge, Think Think!. Open Court Publishing. pp. 25–36. ISBN 0-8126-9593-3. 

External links

• Part of the transcript of the Aspen documentary, with Terry Jones talking about the character