The Fish-Slapping Dance

The Fish-Slapping Dance is a comedy sketch written and performed by the Monty Python team. The sketch was originally recorded in 1971 for a pan-European May Day special entitled Euroshow 71. In 1972 it was broadcast as part of episode two of series three of Monty Python's Flying Circus, which was entitled "Mr & Mrs Brian Norris' Ford Popular".

The sketch stars John Cleese and Michael Palin in safari outfits and pith helmets at the side of a canal lock (Teddington Lock in west London). Both are facing each other and light-hearted music plays while Palin dances towards Cleese, lightly slapping him in the face with two small pilchards, and returning to his starting spot. After Palin does this four times, he returns to his starting spot and stands still. In traditional British folk dancing, of which this is reminiscent, one would now expect the other dancer to repeat these steps. Instead, the music stops, Cleese reveals his fish — a much, much larger halibut — and clobbers Palin on the head with it, knocking him into the water several feet below.

The music is "Merrymakers Dance" from "Nell Gwyn suite" by British composer Sir Edward German (1862-1936).

The sketch is about 30 seconds long, but its situational non-verbal portrayal endears it to the audience. It remains one of Michael Palin's favorite routines on the show, and he made it the centerpiece of his own choice of sketches for his Monty Python's Personal Best miniseries episode. Palin has stated that the sketch summarises concisely what Python is all about.

In popular culture

• In the Monty Python-derived Broadway show Spamalot written by Eric Idle, there is a song called “The Fisch Schlapping Song”, sung by pseudo-Finnish people, before the historian abruptly ends the song. During the song, men and women dressed in stereotypical Scandinavian garb slap each other with fish, very similar to the original sketch.
• The Swedish comedy team Angne & Svullo did their own version of the fish slapping dance in one episode of their popular TV show in the late 1980s. The sketch starts the same as the original: first Angne slaps Svullo a few times in the face with small fish, then Svullo takes out a big fish and with a single blow knocks Angne into the water, laughing hysterically. However, in their version an old lady with an umbrella then comes by and starts hitting Svullo with her umbrella until he too falls into the water.
• In an interview, George Harrison's son, Dhani Harrison, said that the Fish-Slapping Dance was one of his father's favourite Monty Python sketches.
• The Australian satirical TV show The Chaser's War on Everything did a “British comedy sketch” that mainly parodied Monty Python. At one point, someone is slapped with a fish.
• In the VeggieTales movie, Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie about the life of the prophet Jonah, one of the “sins” of the Ninevites is that they slap people with fish. If you play the commentary track (featuring Larry the Cucumber and Mr. Lunt), Larry admits he got the idea from Monty Python.

External links

• The Fish-Slapping Dance
• Michael Palin writes about the dance, while setting the record straight about his reputation as 'the nice Python' - on Pythonline