Monty Python Live at The Hollywood Bowl - Sketches and Songs

Sketches and Songs

• "Sit on my Face" – A ribald parody of Gracie Fields' "Sing as We Go" from Monty Python's Contractual Obligation Album, performed by Cleese, Chapman, Gilliam and Jones in waiter outfits, sans trousers or underwear.
• "Colin 'Bomber' Harris" – Chapman is his own opponent in the wrestling ring as Cleese delivers play-by-play. This is a mime piece that dates back to Chapman's college days.
• "Never Be Rude to an Arab" – Jones performs an ostensibly anti-racism song filled with demeaning epithets, and is subsequently blown up. This sketch has two parts at different points in the show. In the first part, he's blown up and dragged offstage by Kim Johnson dressed as a large frog. In the second, he's blown up and dragged off by Johnson dressed as a Christmas tree. Also from Monty Python's Contractual Obligation Album.
• "The Last Supper" – Michelangelo (Idle) defends his creative first draft of The Last Supper painting against the objections of the Pope (Cleese). Was originally written for the TV series by Cleese and Chapman but somehow never got on the air (although its punchline, "I don't know much about art but I know what I like" was featured in a different Season 1 skit), and was first performed for one of the Secret Policeman's Ball shows. It's based on a historical incident involving the Renaissance painter Paolo Veronese.
• "Silly Olympics" – In a filmed section, athletes compete in absurd sporting events of the "Silly Olympiad," an event traditionally held every 3.7 years. The events include
  • The 100m for Runners with No Sense of Direction. On the starting gun, the runners run off in every single direction.
  • The 1500m for the Deaf. They don't move because they can't hear the starting gun.
  • The 200m Freestyle for Non-Swimmers. At the starting whistle, they all jump into the water and immediately sink without surfacing, to which the commentator remarks that they'll return to the swimming when they start "fishing the corpses out".
  • The Marathon for Those with Extremely Weak Bladders. In this, runners fall away from the group every couple of metres to relieve themselves, giving others the lead.
  • The 3000m Steeplechase for People Who Think They're Chickens. In this, the runners are all doing chicken movements all over the course, and seem to be trying desperately to lay eggs.
  • The High Jump briefly features, with one of the Pythons, perhaps Cleese, dressed as a woman. They take a run-up, then jump ridiculously high over a wall and onto a high balcony.

The "Silly Olympics" sketch is from the first Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus episode, dubbed into English.

• "Bruces' Philosophers Song" – The University of Woolloomooloo's Philosophy Department throws cans of Foster's Lager at the audience and perform "The Philosophers' Song", accompanied by large Gilliam cutouts, detailing the drinking habits of history's great thinkers and project lyrics for the audience and viewers to sing along to. Eric Idle, Michael Palin, and Neil Innes play three "Bruces" (from the classic sketch of Flying Circus, Season Two).
• "The Ministry of Silly Walks" – Palin has difficulty gaining funding for his (only slightly) silly walk. This also contains colour footage of the same archival 'silly walks' film seen in the first episode of the second Python television series.
• "Camp Judges" – British judges (Idle and Palin) behave unconventionally outside the courtroom.
• "World Forum" – Important historical socialist figures are asked British football trivia questions in a quiz show game hosted by Idle.
• "I'm the Urban Spaceman" – Neil Innes performs the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band number as Carol Cleveland tap dances and constantly loses timing of the song.
• "Crunchy Frog" – Candymaker Jones answers to the police (Chapman and Gilliam, who vomits into his helmet) for his disgusting varieties of chocolates.
• "Albatross" – Cleese, dressed as a waitress, attempts to vend a wandering albatross to audience member Jones. The sketch is stopped by the colonel (Chapman) for being too silly, who then orders Jones to report on stage for the next sketch. Originally performed during Season 1, although the film version uses adult language.
• "Nudge Nudge" – Idle pesters Jones with perplexing innuendo. Originally performed in the third episode of Monty Python.
• "International Philosophy" – In a filmed bit, German philosophers take on Greek philosophers on a football field. This piece is from the second Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus episode. It is shown in two parts, with "Four Yorkshiremen" in between each.
• "Four Yorkshiremen sketch" – Well-to-do Yorkshiremen (Palin, Idle, Chapman and Jones) try to top one another's tales of their austere beginnings, each story getting more exaggerated and absurd. Originally written for At Last the 1948 Show.
• The Argument Sketch – Palin pays Cleese to disagree with him. Sketch interrupted by Gilliam suspended from wires performing "I've Got Two Legs." Cleese ends Gilliam's singing by shooting him with a shotgun. The sketch originates from the TV series, though Gilliam's song was not part of the TV sketch.
• "How Sweet to Be an Idiot" – Neil Innes sings an ode to lunacy.
• "Travel Agency" – Palin attempts to sell a package tour to Mr. Smoketoomuch (Idle), who will not stop talking about travel difficulties, even as he is chased by an asylum orderly (Cleese) all about the stadium. He even interrupts the next sketch.
• "Comedy Lecture" – Chapman explains slapstick comedy fundamentals in an extremely highbrow manner as Palin, Gilliam, and Jones demonstrate, with Jones invariably becoming the jokes' victim. Originally written for Cambridge Circus.
• "Little Red Riding Hood" – In a filmed bit, Cleese as Little Red Riding Hood endures a fractured retelling of the classic fairy tale. This piece is from the first Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus episode, dubbed into English. (Some VHS versions of Hollywood Bowl omit this piece.)
• "Bishop on the Landing" (aka "Salvation Fuzz") – A dead bishop on the landing disrupts a family's mealtime.
  • During the performance of this sketch, technical difficulties (a microphone starts feeding back) make Terry Jones lose his place (he temporarily looks up with a smirk on his face). Eric Idle has trouble keeping a straight face while delivering his lines with an extraordinarily overwrought accent, which also causes Terry Jones to openly burst out laughing. At one point, Jones loses his Pepperpot wig, which goes flying across the stage. Graham Chapman and Michael Palin slide across the stage in order to hide Jones as he replaces the wig, after which they all have trouble keeping a straight face (particularly Palin). This was always a difficult sketch to perform live—on other occasions, the 'Hand of God' (a large Gilliam-designed cut-out) fingered the wrong character. Idle describes the sketch as "shambolic" as he segues into:
• "The Lumberjack Song" – A rugged, masculine outdoorsman (Idle, as opposed to Palin in the original BBC series; Palin had also performed it in Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus) unsettles the chorus by revealing his fondness for women's clothes.
• According to the Live at the Hollywood Bowl book, quite early on, there is also a Spanish band singing an absurd song about llamas, and a Gumby performing flower arranging. He does this by gathering his flowers, and then arranging them neatly in a vase. However, after saying this, he smashes the plants in with a hammer until he is dragged off by two men in white coats (based on a skit from the original series).