Sixteen Ton Weight
This sketch was the first appearance of Monty Python's 16-ton weight. In the typical style of a comedy or cartoon weight, it was coloured black, in shape of a right square frustum, and had its mass "16 TONS" painted on the side in large white letters. Monty Python's sixteen ton weight was hollow lightweight board and approximately 1.5m high, allowing it to readily conceal the character upon whom it was dropped. The sixteen ton weight was used periodically thereafter to bring an abrupt ending to sketches (in much the same way as the knight with a rubber chicken would do during the first series). A later episode would end with the weight being dropped on a TV announcer (played by Palin) and in the instant before cutting to a black screen, the viewer can see the top of the prop being broken due to Palin not ducking down fast enough.
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Famous quotes containing the words sixteen, ton and/or weight:
“From sixteen to twenty, all women, kept in humor by their hopes and by their attractions, appear to be good-natured.”
—Samuel Richardson (1689–1761)
“A ton of reading does not equal one good teacher.”
—Chinese proverb.
“When Socrates, after being relieved of his irons, felt the relish of the itching that their weight had caused in his legs, he rejoiced to consider the close alliance between pain and pleasure.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)