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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.

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)After he tosses the projector of stage, Cleese 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 claimed to see in this sketch a satire of government projects. But 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.

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).[citation needed]

  • 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 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.

See also

References

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