The Ministry of Silly Walks

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John Cleese as a civil servant in the halls of the Ministry.

"The Ministry of Silly Walks" is a sketch from the Monty Python comedy troupe's television show Monty Python's Flying Circus, episode 14, which is entitled "Face the Press". The episode first aired in 1970. A shortened version of the sketch was performed for Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl. This sketch involves John Cleese as a bowler hatted civil servant in a fictitious British government ministry responsible for developing Silly Walks through grants. Cleese, throughout the sketch, walks in a variety of silly ways (including one that briefly imitates the scissor gait of spastic diplegia), and it is these various silly walks, more than the dialogue, that has earned the sketch its popularity. Cleese has cited the physical comedy of Max Wall, probably in character as Professor Wallofski, as important to its conception.

Contents

[edit] The Sketch

Cleese is presented with a "walk in progress" by one Mr. Putey (Michael Palin). Putey demonstrates his silly walk, which, to Cleese, is not particularly silly. He tells Putey that he does not believe the Ministry can help him, as his walk is not silly enough, and funding is short. The government, he explains, is supposed to give equally to Defence, Social Security, Health, Housing, Education and Silly Walks, but recently has been underfunding Silly Walks. After a visit of Mrs. Twolumps (see below) Cleese shows Mr. Putey a film with silly walks. (The segment is a parody of early 20th century cinema, complete with Michael Palin dressed up as Little Tich) Cleese later offers Mr. Putey a grant that will allow him to work on the Anglo-French Silly Walk, La Marche Futile (an obvious parody of the Concorde's Anglo-French development), which is then demonstrated by a man (Terry Jones) dressed in a mixture of stereotypical English and French outfits, with a sped-up version of La Marseillaise played over the top.

There is a brief appearance during the sketch by Mrs Twolumps, presumably the Minister's secretary, bringing in coffee with full silly walk (Carol Cleveland in the Hollywood Bowl version). As she enters, the cups fall all over the tray, completely spilling their contents. The Minister looks at the tray, says "Thank you, lovely" and she exits again, taking the tray with her, complete with upended cups. In the Hollywood Bowl version, Carol Cleveland accidentally (or possibly intentionally) hops next to Cleese and spills some of the coffee on him during the sketch.

As the years went by amid repeated requests to do the sketch, Cleese found it increasingly difficult to perform these walks. He'd say, when told about a new Python Tour, "I'm not doing silly walks."

Some right-wing inspired observers claimed to see in this sketch a satire of government projects. But it should be noted that in the book The Pythons, members of the troupe indicated that they considered the whole scene nothing more than pure silliness. Cleese in particular seems disheartened that so many fans consider it the troupe's "best" sketch.

John Hopkins, Cleese's former Director of Studies at Downing College, Cambridge, has suggested that the inspiration for the sketch came as a result of Cleese's time studying there, where the uneven, slippery and ill-supported gravel paths of the college domus often force undergraduates to navigate carefully around frequently-formed puddles and pot-holes with an amusing, broad and 'silly' stride[citation needed]. However, this explanation is highly unlikely, as the sketch was written by Terry Jones and Michael Palin, who were educated at Oxford University.

Chapter 5 of G. K. Chesterton's 1904 work The Club of Queer Trades may be a source for this sketch. Titled "The Noticeable Conduct of Professor Chadd," the chapter describes the sudden, odd behaviour of an ethnologist who is an "authority on the relations of savages to language." Professor Chadd refuses to speak to anyone and will only hop and dance around in his garden, kicking his legs in a fantastic manner, convincing his household that he has gone mad. In fact, as Basil Grant, the hero of the book deduces, Chadd has invented a new language expressed through dance. Grant then arranges for the government to pay Chadd a research endowment of 800 pounds per year until his new language can be decoded.

[edit] The science of silly walks

A research article published by Britain's Royal Society in 2007 demonstrated mathematically that a simple model of a normal walking gait is the most efficient at low speeds, while a running gait is most efficient at high speeds.[1] Some articles in the popular media explained this research in terms of proving that silly walks were inefficient.[2]

[edit] Reception

In 2005, the sketch was chosen by a poll taken in Britain as the 15th greatest comedy sketch of all time (and one of 5 Monty Python sketches in the top 50).

[edit] References in popular culture

 This article contains too many minor or trivial fictional references. Mere trivia, or references unimportant to the overall plot of a work of fiction, should be deleted. See also what Wikipedia is not.
  • In 2000, an episode of Mission Hill, Andy and Kevin Make a Friend (or One Bang for Two Brothers), referenced the sketch when one of the characters attempts to impress a girl by showing how he does a "great silly walk" from the Ministry of Silly Walks.
  • A reference is made to the "silly walk" in an episode of the WB's Gilmore Girls when Rory says "Please, don't walk away like that," and Dean responds with "Sorry, I'd do a silly walk, but I'm not feeling very John Cleese right now."
  • In the movie Blue Collar Comedy Tour: One For the Road, Larry the Cable Guy makes a reference to The Ministry of Silly Walks and performs various silly walks to illustrate how people walked in Wal-Mart at around 2:00 AM.
  • In October 2006, the children's educational TV programme Numberjacks on CBeebies (part of the BBC network) featured a "silly walk" by actor/gymnast Alex Liang in episode 5. In this episode, Alex plays a businessman whose shoes get struck by the "Problem Blob" which makes his shoes go into "silly walk" mode and has him "silly walking" all over Richmond Park.
  • In an issue of The Simpsons Bongo comic when the British invade Springfield it shows John Cleese doing the goosestep and labels him as "the Minister of Silly Walks".
  • On an episode of The Chaser's War On Everything, Andrew Hansen and Chris Taylor do a sketch called "The Chaser's British Comedy Sketch", filled with various Monty Python cliches, which climaxes with Andrew screaming "I'm going to do something so totally bizarre it will be imitated verbatim by comedy nerds for decades to come!" He then does a silly walk, doing imitations of Pepperpots, until a 16-ton weight falls on his head.
  • In November 2007, as the Eurostar duration between Brussels and London was reduced to 1 hour and 51 minutes, the Ministry of Silly Walks has appeared in an ad campaign in Belgium. The adverts were all on building corners, this one showing two workers carrying a large glass pane walking towards the corner on one side, and walking towards them on the other side a John Cleese look-alike doing his famous Silly Walk. The tagline read "Warning! London is just around the corner!".
  • In the twenty-fifth-anniversary reunion episode of I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again, John Cleese consents to appear on the show on condition that he be allowed to do the Silly Walk; the other cast members are dubious about the comedic impact of doing the Walk on radio, but they ultimately give in after Cleese puts on a show of hurt feelings. Near the end of the show, Cleese presents the Silly Walk, rendered on radio as a series of loud, slow footsteps.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Idealized walking and running gaits minimize work, Manoj Srinivasan and andy Ruina, Proc. R. Soc. A (2007) 463, 2429-2446
  2. ^ Maths explains why 'silly walks' are silly

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ministry_of_Silly_Walks"