The Ministry of Silly Walks
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"The Ministry of Silly Walks" is a sketch from Monty Python's Flying Circus, episode 14 entitled "Face the Press", 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 the Minister (or senior civil servant) of a fictitious British government agency responsible for developing Silly Walks through grants. Cleese, throughout the sketch, walks in a variety of silly ways, and it is this more than the dialogue that has earned the sketch its popularity. As Minister, he is presented with a "walk in progress" by one Mr. Pudey (Michael Palin) — which turns out to be actually not that silly. The Minister tells Pudey 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 his department. The Minister later explains that Mr. Pudey may find work with the Anglo-French silly walk, La Marche Futile (an obvious parody of the Concorde's Anglo-French development).
There is a brief appearance by Mrs Twolumps serving coffee with full silly walk (Carol Cleveland in the Hollywood Bowl version). The result of her style of walking is that no coffee is left in the cups by the time she puts them down on the desk.
The sketch is seen by some as a reference to large government bureaucracy, by others as a reference to wasteful government spending, and by others simply as surreal nonsense.
References in popular culture
- A reference to this sketch appears in Fawlty Towers episode The Germans, when John Cleese tries to cool things down by offering I'll do the funny walk — impersonating a German soldier's goosestep.
- David Brent attempts to perform the "silly walk" in the first episode of series two of The Office
- In The World Is Not Enough, John Cleese, in his first appearance as R, moves around the BMW in the Scottish Q Branch shop, in a way that is certainly inspired by that sketch.
- 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.
- 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).
- 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."
See also
External links
- [Monty Python in Britain's Top 50 Comedy Sketches]
- [The Silly Walks Generator]
- [Clip of the sketch on YouTube]
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