The Monty Python RAF Banter skit is probably one of the funniest things I've ever seen. I come back to watch it every now and then and to this day it still makes me laugh so hard it hurts my chest. God is it good...And I'm American.
I found this via Google search: Bally = intensifier Jerry = German Pranged his kite = crashed his plane How's your father = rear Hairy blighter = Reference to caveman like hair; stupid person Dicky birdied = Dicky = injured, so reference to manoeuvre that looks like an injured bird; probably a corkscrew Feathered back on his sammy = slowed down his engine Took a waspy = got shot (stung) Flipped over on his Betty Harper's = turned upside-down Caught his can in the Bertie: Plane sunk in the sea
John Cleese left Monty Python to do other things after a few seasons and those later episodes are less known; this is one of them. It's been said that his absence is reflected without his writing influence and ideas in those episodes.
Top hole. Bally Jerry pranged his kite right in the how's your father. Hairy blighter, dicky-birdied, feathered back on his Sammy, took a waspy, flipped over on his Betty Harper's and caught his can in the Bertie.
My favorite Monty Python sketch intro EVER: "There have been many stirring tales told of the Sea! And also some fairly uninteresting ones only marginally connected with it. Like this one....."
So much influential stuff here, from the quick show-and-tell cuts later used by The Day Today, to Blackadder's co-opting of 'Shirley' for Captain Darling.
@@darthkek1953 It has to be remembered that Scottish, Irish and Welsh, amongst other nations contributed what they could. But if Glasgow is representative of British cities, it's a surprise we didn't slaughter our brothers in arms.
@@michaellavery4899 Glasgow is rapidly becoming the third world, following in the footsteps of England. It is the infection that will rot the whole of Scotland. Wales is already there.
I understood the gist of this sketch the 1st time I saw it 50 years ago, must've been all those war films I watched as a kid!! And my dad was fond of slang😊
Everytime i watch this i can’t help but think abt the Polish and Czech volunteer RAF squadrons back in the day, going from not speaking english to full immersion in Bally Jolly Rightio Old Chap language
The last thing I saw him do was a promo during a live MTV News segment where he put on some kind of uniform and half a mustache and said his line. Can't remember what it was for.
There are more segues and plot twists in the first three and half minutes of this skit than a movie trailer on speed. 🤣I love the first 80 seconds. Classic Monty Python silliness. Just wonderful comedy.
This was the very first scene I saw of Monty Python on TV, I couldnt stop laughing while my parents were surprised I understood the joke as a dutch 8-9 yo kid. MP instantly became my favorite show! ;)
I caught the Python bug at about that age. Me and my mates used to narrate bits of the sketches at each other. Favourites were the arguement sketch and the Cheese Shop sketch.
What's extra funny about this skit is that I know most of those phrases (if not all) were used by the upper classes at that time. I imagine speaking in such riddles was all part of proving that you were operating at a higher level.
A few years ago, my work supervisor was a transplanted Brit, and when he one day arrived at work and asked me how I was doing, I pulled this perfectly ordinary flight banter on him...
@@diverguy3556 John Cleese said that he could not do a show like Python in the new millennium as he didn't understand modern culture to the extent that he could make fun of it.
@@PreservationEnthusiast Good for him. At least he has the sense to rest on his laurels, and not keep pumping out increasingly unfunny stuff like other comedians past their prime. Edit: Just remembered he's doing a reboot of Fawlty Towers, which will be set in the carribean. 😐
True, and yet they'd still be "canceled" today by the politically-correct woke crowd. This takes me back to the days when hows were actually allowed to be funny and if someone was offended that was on them.
@@tomservo75 No, sorry - I'm not on board with your reactionary "waah waah woke brigade" nonsense, mate. And if you think I am, you've misunderstood my post.
@@tomservo75I always see a hundred times more people complaining about the “woke brigade” and how “they wouldn’t get away with this now because too many people would be offended” than I ever do people actually offended…
@@tomservo75 You losers are insufferable. This isn't even true and you're just looking for outrage because it's obvious your team is not only losing now but is going to get absolutely creamed in what comes next.
I don't know which of the Monty Python team wrote this RAF banter sketch, but I wonder if they were inspired from reading the 'Biggles' series of adventure story books. I think it may have been Terry Jones and Michael Palin because they went on to write the brilliant 'Ripping Yarns' TV series, that also parodied boys-own adventure genre of stories.
And next week; Biggles Flies Undone… There were not many of their/my generation in the UK and Commonwealth who weren’t inspired’ by Biggles I’d have thought.
Hey, what a coincidence! My Uncle, who's co-workers close friend, Robert Sands once worked as a waiter for a restaurant owned by the actor Thomas Hawkes, who's third cousin Dorothy Wright once bought a car from a man who got his milk delivered by the great-nephew of a man who attended one of Rev. Hyper Squawk-Smith's sermons! ;)
After three minutes too many characters so went of to see my brother in law who drinks down at local pub that is next door but one from the chip shop what was formally owned by Churchills nanny who fought in Second World War and was awarded the one length swimming certificate in the same school of Donald Bradman the finest cricketer to ever play for Huddersfield town, small world.
I've come to the conclusion that this sketch is the pre-internet era equivalent of trying to understand what some people post in UA-cam and Facebook comment sections.
"Cabbage crates coming over the Briney" could be a reference to German bomber planes (cabbage crates) coming over the English Channel (the "briney deep") to attack. However, we soon find out that the Germans are indeed using cabbages "instead of decent bombs."
A German got hit in the tail, so he pulled back on the throttle to spin around and crashed in the water is my best understanding of it but idk if the Harry blighter is his wingman or still the same German
Why this sketch is up tops in the Willy Carmichael! A bit of Yellow Turnpike in the dusty hornblower. You know? Right on with a piece of the ol Wagon barnacle!
...That was sooooo good: As a Canadian that spent [too much] time in England.......-that 'banter' made more sense than what I encountered around London and Black Country'......... even when you understood it..-it was gibberish anyways..... thx: CS
They completely made Palin's lines up but they're all referring to bombers approaching. cabbage crates = German (sauerkraut) bombers sausage squad = bomb wing
"Get me the prime minister!"
"Sir!"
"NOT THAT QUICKLY!"
My favorite joke of the whole skit
Jolly good my chap!
🤣😂🤣
"We're going to SHOW these CHINESE..."
Python really was about 50 years ahead of its time.
This was the one to crack me too!! After ALL these years. Blimey!
Bally is basically "bloody"!
The Monty Python RAF Banter skit is probably one of the funniest things I've ever seen. I come back to watch it every now and then and to this day it still makes me laugh so hard it hurts my chest. God is it good...And I'm American.
There was a series of boys books by Capt. W.E. Johns about Spitfire pilot Biggles. Python refers to Biggles many times.
You should look up Armstrong and Miller RAF pilot sketches. They are set during WW2 but are speaking in modern English slang.
@@speedysteve9121 Signed, Fictionally Biggles!
😮😅
Don't let this distract you from the fact that one of the cross beams has gone out of skew on the treadle
"I wasn't expecting the Spanish Inquisition!...."
Took me a beat or two to get it. I'm glad I'm fully conversant with MP banter.
"treadle" Such a woody word. Treadlllllle.
The Germans had Enigma, we had Banter... And not even we could crack the banter....
Maybe if he said it slower.
darkridge What, slower banter?
I know, I know. It's not the same slower.
Sausage squad up the blue end!
Thoran666 . . . No, still don't follow you. Give us it slower.
I found this via Google search:
Bally = intensifier
Jerry = German
Pranged his kite = crashed his plane
How's your father = rear
Hairy blighter = Reference to caveman like hair; stupid person
Dicky birdied = Dicky = injured, so reference to manoeuvre that looks like an injured bird; probably a corkscrew
Feathered back on his sammy = slowed down his engine
Took a waspy = got shot (stung)
Flipped over on his Betty Harper's = turned upside-down
Caught his can in the Bertie: Plane sunk in the sea
awesome, thanks, old horse!
Good job he’s a real chip off he old block this one is yes !
You could say Bally instead of Bloody 😊
How's your father also means sex, so I am told. So interesting if it also means rear.
Most of it is based on cockney-rhyming slang.
Cabbage Crates coming over the Briny was about as obvious as you could get!
Sausage squad was completely clear to me!
Of course it perfectly ordinary banter Squiffy
that one made me laugh out loud
Cabbage crates is the Sour Krauts. Briny is the brine water or salt water. Germans coming over the Channel. Im not a Brit. Did I get that right?
Theresa Metcalf
Fighter planes coming over the ocean 😊
German bombers = Cabbage crates x
German bomber squads = Sausage squads 😊
I can't believe the audience didn't react at all when the woman stood up from under the desk at 6:01
+Plato Smith her uniform was blue also. weird, just like Monica's dress.
Didn't even see that!!! Funny shit!!
Chuck.Raney Raney she was a WAAF. They were notoriously promiscuous.
it was the 60s. if anyone knwe then, they would hides it.
It was the 60s. That was just a weak joke.
Our generation was so lucky Monty python and oodles of great music!
no argument here!
Aye, but it's all turned to crap now. Comedy and music.
This is what made Monty Python so great, running jokes throughout several sketches and the ability to be consistently funny. Great Post!
I've never seen this before! It's something completely different!
John Cleese left Monty Python to do other things after a few seasons and those later episodes are less known; this is one of them. It's been said that his absence is reflected without his writing influence and ideas in those episodes.
Top hole. Bally Jerry pranged his kite right in the how's your father. Hairy blighter, dicky-birdied, feathered back on his Sammy, took a waspy, flipped over on his Betty Harper's and caught his can in the Bertie.
Nope, lost me there.
Now go wash your mouth out with soap!
Makes perfect sense to me, ay what !!
"Sausage squad up the blue end"is crying out to be printed on a t-shirt.
Bally Bosche flying over to offload their hun pineapples on Blighty,what do you mean,what does it mean?
I can’t believe they were confused by “sausage squad up the blue end”. Clearly it means “Bosche up in the billows.”
Either way, it clearly was a wizard prang
@@pauledwards3055 Right in the how's your father!
I love this. It's like Bertie Wooster fighting in WWII with everyone from the Drones Club, and no Jeeves.
My favorite Monty Python sketch intro EVER:
"There have been many stirring tales told of the Sea! And also some fairly uninteresting ones only marginally connected with it. Like this one....."
"Sorry, this isn't a very good announcement."
I love the way the squadron leader has completely lost all conviction in his own bantering abilities by the end of his third recitation.
Discipline from his subordinates?
So much influential stuff here, from the quick show-and-tell cuts later used by The Day Today, to Blackadder's co-opting of 'Shirley' for Captain Darling.
Yes I can see where they got Melchett from.
It's a wonder we won the war. That was perfectly good banter.
We owe so much to the joke that was deadly in the field. ✌
One glance around any major English city makes me doubt we did win it.
@@darthkek1953
It has to be remembered that Scottish, Irish and Welsh, amongst other nations contributed what they could. But if Glasgow is representative of British cities, it's a surprise we didn't slaughter our brothers in arms.
@@michaellavery4899 Glasgow is rapidly becoming the third world, following in the footsteps of England. It is the infection that will rot the whole of Scotland. Wales is already there.
The consequences of operating in different banter paradigms to one's chums
Bigglesworthicus Lemon Curry?
Oooh! Look at you, all fancy with the language using "paradigms" like some prancing linquist!
@@markh.6687 Could be related to the Swedish ballet dancer - Prancing Lindquist.
@@mrmockatoo6786Cunning Linquist....what?? :)
@@markh.6687 Stunning Tonguetwist?
@6:00 “thank you Shirley”. This was so subtle it could be easily missed. That is “Shirley” emerging from under the desk😂😂😂.
That bit and the following eight seconds has me in tears 🤣
only got it the second time I watched it
I understood the gist of this sketch the 1st time I saw it 50 years ago, must've been all those war films I watched as a kid!! And my dad was fond of slang😊
Hah too true. Came back to this after many years of WW2 flicks/Docs and now I don't understand what the problem is.
Cabbage crates over the briny
Everytime i watch this i can’t help but think abt the Polish and Czech volunteer RAF squadrons back in the day, going from not speaking english to full immersion in Bally Jolly Rightio Old Chap language
Repeat please.
They flew in their own squadrons and spoke their own languages
@@calvinnickel9995👍
Graham Chapman looks ridiculously good in any kind of military-ish uniforms and caps...
It's the pipe mate
The last thing I saw him do was a promo during a live MTV News segment where he put on some kind of uniform and half a mustache and said his line. Can't remember what it was for.
Probably because he was fit. He was a rugby player.
Anyone looks good when they pout. 😗
"Lets get the bacon delivered" that was hilarious!!
It was 'dropping in the custard' that got me!
There are more segues and plot twists in the first three and half minutes of this skit than a movie trailer on speed. 🤣I love the first 80 seconds. Classic Monty Python silliness. Just wonderful comedy.
The into is my attention span when trying to study
The phrase "From an idea by LORD CARRINGTON" almost singlehandedly justifies the existence of nobility.
Lord Carrington was a senior
Conservative party figure and cabinet minister in Heath's 1970-74 Govt. And again under Mrs Thatcher 1979-82.
This was the very first scene I saw of Monty Python on TV, I couldnt stop laughing while my parents were surprised I understood the joke as a dutch 8-9 yo kid. MP instantly became my favorite show! ;)
hartstikke leuk! :)
I caught the Python bug at about that age. Me and my mates used to narrate bits of the sketches at each other. Favourites were the arguement sketch and the Cheese Shop sketch.
@@jeffreybarton1297a couple of the best for sure!
Monty Python was always so strangely aware of "Britishness" and was quick to poke fun at it.
You see the same in American comedy now they have entered into the cycle of decline.
We Brits are not afraid to poke fun at ourselves, Monty Python is a good example but one of the best is "Dad's Army"
British people were aware of Britishness and made fun of it… yeah, how “strange”.
@@EvgeneXI Plenty of people are oblivious to their own mannerisms and speech patterns.
I wonder if they're proud of it at this point.
What's extra funny about this skit is that I know most of those phrases (if not all) were used by the upper classes at that time. I imagine speaking in such riddles was all part of proving that you were operating at a higher level.
A few years ago, my work supervisor was a transplanted Brit, and when he one day arrived at work and asked me how I was doing, I pulled this perfectly ordinary flight banter on him...
So, that's how you got fired?
The WRAF officer getting up from under the desk went unremarked
That was very subtle and hilarious at the same time.
he said "Thank you, Shirley"
@@derekmills5394 by the audience
Interestingly it seems that the E-Type Jaguar at the beginning is still on the road with an MOT that runs out next year. Fantastic cars.
Ah. Another checker of random MOTs. Good to make your acquaintance. I had assumed I was alone.
The first three minutes are very sophisticated comedy. Hard to believe it was so very very long ago.
Entertainment used to be vastly more sophisticated.
@@patricksmith4424It's just not funny any more to most people as millennial will struggle to understand it.
@@PreservationEnthusiastMillenials won't understand this as the cultural references are at least 30 years old.
@@diverguy3556 John Cleese said that he could not do a show like Python in the new millennium as he didn't understand modern culture to the extent that he could make fun of it.
@@PreservationEnthusiast Good for him. At least he has the sense to rest on his laurels, and not keep pumping out increasingly unfunny stuff like other comedians past their prime.
Edit: Just remembered he's doing a reboot of Fawlty Towers, which will be set in the carribean.
😐
It's incredible how fresh MP still seems now. It just hasn't aged and it's still utterly hilarious 😍🍿🍿
True, and yet they'd still be "canceled" today by the politically-correct woke crowd. This takes me back to the days when hows were actually allowed to be funny and if someone was offended that was on them.
@@tomservo75 No, sorry - I'm not on board with your reactionary "waah waah woke brigade" nonsense, mate. And if you think I am, you've misunderstood my post.
@@tomservo75I always see a hundred times more people complaining about the “woke brigade” and how “they wouldn’t get away with this now because too many people would be offended” than I ever do people actually offended…
@@tomservo75 You losers are insufferable. This isn't even true and you're just looking for outrage because it's obvious your team is not only losing now but is going to get absolutely creamed in what comes next.
@mooglancashire424 It's almost as if it's projection all along...
Still holds up after 50 years. Brilliant, esp. the RAF Banter.
"Sausage squad up the blue end."
Michael Palin makes everything better.
He’s got nothing on Graham Chapman, though.
The best comedy group in the world - every. Nobody has ever even got close.
Love the main sketch but that intro is true genius! "Alex Dimond, international crime fighter and playboy. Fast moving..."
...tough talking.
I don't see what's so hard to understand about "Sausage squad up the blue end." Wouldn't that be "German bombers overhead" ?
Good show! Bloody Good Show!!
Hear hear
You can always count on the BBC for authentic RAF costumes.
This episode is definitely my favorite non-cleese episode
" Not taking the war seriously "😂
A man of whom the chairman of Fiat once said “Che cos’è un succiacatore di polli?”
I always thought that he said "What is a hen teaser?"
Back when comedy was funny, and no one got upset by it. Proper job 👏 👌
And if they did get upset, They didn't try to get you fired or killed!
Another classic documentary.
I don't know which of the Monty Python team wrote this RAF banter sketch, but I wonder if they were inspired from reading the 'Biggles' series of adventure story books.
I think it may have been Terry Jones and Michael Palin because they went on to write the brilliant 'Ripping Yarns' TV series, that also parodied boys-own adventure genre of stories.
they like biggles, remember cardinal biggles from the inquisition
@@dont-want-no-wrench Well remembered. Played by Terry Jones wearing Cardinal garb and a leather flying helmet.
"Where the hell was Biggles when you need him last Saturday. . ." Jethro Tull, "Thick As A Brick"
And next week; Biggles Flies Undone…
There were not many of their/my generation in the UK and Commonwealth who weren’t inspired’ by Biggles I’d have thought.
"Biggles Combs His Hair?" - from the Bookshop Sketch.
Hey, what a coincidence!
My Uncle, who's co-workers close friend, Robert Sands once worked as a waiter for a restaurant owned by the actor Thomas Hawkes, who's third cousin Dorothy Wright once bought a car from a man who got his milk delivered by the great-nephew of a man who attended one of Rev. Hyper Squawk-Smith's sermons! ;)
Cheer~~~~the playful and friendly exchange of teasing remarks.
After three minutes too many characters so went of to see my brother in law who drinks down at local pub that is next door but one from the chip shop what was formally owned by Churchills nanny who fought in Second World War and was awarded the one length swimming certificate in the same school of Donald Bradman the finest cricketer to ever play for Huddersfield town, small world.
+Tom Robinson
It's the Dambusters theme
Get me the Prime Minister!
Sir!
NOT THAT QUICKLY!!
Sir!!
Lose it there every time
Bollthorn same here! That is my favorite part!
"Where going to show these Chinese!"
"...Germans"
"These Germans"
"QUIET, CRITIC!!"
Me too x 😊
There's been a confusion of the tongues, hard cheese on those blighters.
By gum, old bean.
I'm glad I have a laptop so I can watch this on the toilet.
"We're gonna show these Chinese" "Germans Sir" "These Germans"
SHUT UP CRITICS!
Hilarious line, heard it many times and it gets me every time.
Palin is just so good.
Idle's not bad either. Best banter I think :)
python the legends of comedy never gets old just gets better
Christopher Nolan took this sketch to heart.
British comedy is brilliant, no wonder Norman Lear based his American sitcoms on British ones!
Pity he didn't pick up that Sitcom with the homeless couple. 🤭
I'm fairly sure the pavement they're walking up at the beginning is Cowick Street (B3212) in Exeter, near Cecil Rd
And Southernhay W, when we first see the Rear Admiral
The local PBS station always does an "Up Your Pavement" marathon during their spring pledge drive.
Still just as relateable today.
" 5 shillings a dozen? ... what about the bombs? "
(presumably: thousand pounders)
" good Lord they ARE expensive! "
I've come to the conclusion that this sketch is the pre-internet era equivalent of trying to understand what some people post in UA-cam and Facebook comment sections.
Like this one? Sorry, old boy: couldn't understand a word.
Shits fire no cap fam
The look Idle gives Gilliam when he’s not understood 😂
LOL!! Steptoe and Son pisstake at the strart!
very funny. it's like the gibberish sketch, but with straight men making it even more funny. love Eric (and Michael) in this!
"QUIET, critic!!"
Before "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" there was "Up Your Pavement."
Charlie chopper's chucking a handful doesn't require too much imagination!
Genius. In fact several geniuses.
Who else noticed the conjoined twins walking by at 00:42??
I often wonder if Steven Fry in Black Adder was inspired by this, especially the Army captain
Chief O'Brien and Doctor Bashir brought me here.
I love the way there's so much activity in that forlorn-looking little quonset hut.
I love Cabbage crates over the briny😂❤
Wouldn’t be allowed to have banter like that on cod and chips these days
Rear Admiral Humphrey De Vere's daughter is Haaaaawt!
"Cabbage crates coming over the Briney" could be a reference to German bomber planes (cabbage crates) coming over the English Channel (the "briney deep") to attack. However, we soon find out that the Germans are indeed using cabbages "instead of decent bombs."
Bally them all by German Kraut
Weird, but I actually understand him, should I have a psych evaluation?
A German got hit in the tail, so he pulled back on the throttle to spin around and crashed in the water is my best understanding of it but idk if the Harry blighter is his wingman or still the same German
Douglas Adams as the surgeon at 1:21
No he is really him
Are you sure that's not just banter?
Why this sketch is up tops in the Willy Carmichael! A bit of Yellow Turnpike in the dusty hornblower. You know? Right on with a piece of the ol Wagon barnacle!
"Grab your keyboards and start prattling! Floppy disks on the ceiling!"
Entire Internet: "...No.....not getting it at all...."
Can you say it slower please
@@sknn497 "Technical Banter's not the same if you say it slower!"
...That was sooooo good:
As a Canadian that spent [too much] time in England.......-that 'banter' made more sense than what I encountered around
London and Black Country'.........
even when you understood it..-it was gibberish anyways.....
thx: CS
he went goose over stumps, frogside!
Thank you Shirley! 😂
I've seen the sketch as 'Pilot Banter' but I wasn't aware of the opening leading up to it......😮
It comes naturally to me, ol' chap. ^^ I'm a loony, you see. *manical laughter*
Missed this for some reason - wonderful!
Good Lord! How did our chaps react?!
Well, they were jolly interested, sir.
Was this connected to douglas adams via the seaso 4 episode 42 or via the similar satire?
They completely made Palin's lines up but they're all referring to bombers approaching.
cabbage crates = German (sauerkraut) bombers
sausage squad = bomb wing
@xvdifug that's actually Douglas Adams, author of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Maybe it's because I was an airman.. but I really enjoyed the banter
The bants were good. 🇬🇧
What a ripping yarn!!!
Priceless ! 🤣😂