From “Monty Python’s Flying Circus”
Transcribed by Jonathan Partington
Scene: a 1920s-style drawing room
Chapman: I say!
Cleveland: Yes, Daddy?
Chapman: Croquet hoops look dam’ pretty this afternoon.
Cleveland: Frightfully damn pretty.
Idle (as her mother): They’re coming along awfully well this year.
Chapman: Yes, better than your Aunt Lavinia’s croquet hoops.
Cleveland: Ugh! Dreadful tin things.
Idle: I did tell her to stick to wood.
Chapman: Yes, you can’t beat wood. Gorn.
Idle: What’s gone, dear?
Chapman: Nothing, nothing – just like the word, it gives me confidence. Gorn. Gorn – it’s got a sort of woody quality about it. Gorn. Go-o-orn. Much better than ‘newspaper’ or ‘litter bin’.
Cleveland: Ugh! Frightful words!
Idle: Perfectly dreadful!
Chapman: ‘Newspaper’ – ‘litter bin’ – ‘litter bin’ – dreadful tinny sort of word.
(Cleveland screams)
Chapman: Tin, tin, tin.
Idle: Oh, don’t say ‘tin’ to Rebecca, you know how it upsets her.
Chapman: Sorry, old horse.
Idle: ‘Sausage.’
Chapman: ‘Sausage’! There’s a good woody sort of word, ‘sausage’. ‘Gorn.’
Cleveland: ‘Antelope!’
Chapman: Where? On the lawn?
Cleveland: No, no, Daddy. Just the word.
Chapman: Don’t want antelope nibbling the hoops.
Cleveland: No, no – ‘ant-e-lope’. Sort of nice and woody type of thing.
Idle: Don’t think so, Becky old chap.
Chapman: No, no – ‘antelope’ - ‘antelope’, tinny sort of word.
(Cleveland screams)
Chapman: Oh, sorry old man.
Idle: Really, Mansfield.
Chapman: Well, she’s got to come to terms with these things. ‘Seemly.’ ‘Prodding.’ ‘Vac-u-um.’ ‘Leap.’
Cleveland: Oh – hate ‘leap’.
Idle: Perfectly dreadful.
Cleveland: Sort of PVC sort of word, don’t you know.
Idle: Lower middle.
Chapman: ‘Bound!’
Idle: Now you’re talking!
Chapman: ‘Bound.’ ‘Vole!’ ‘Recidivist!’
Idle: Bit tinny…
(Cleveland screams and rushes out sobbing)
Idle: Oh, sorry, Becky old beast.
Chapman: Oh dear, I suppose she’ll be gorn for a few days now.
Idle: Caribou.
Chapman: Splendid word!
Idle: No, dear, nibbling the hoops.
(Chapman fires a shotgun)
Chapman: (with satisfaction) Caribou – gorn… ‘Intercourse.’
Idle: Later, dear.
Chapman: No, no – the word, ‘intercourse’. Good and woody. ‘Inter-course.’ ‘Pert,’ ‘pert,’ ‘thighs,’ ‘botty,’ ‘botty,’ ‘botty’ (getting excited), ‘erogenous zo-o-one’. Ha ha ha ha – oh, ‘concubine’, ‘erogenous zo-o-one’, ‘loose woman’, ‘erogenous zone’…
(Idle calmly empties a bucket of water over Chapman)
Chapman: Oh, thank you, dear. There’s a funny thing, dear – all the naughty words sound woody.
Idle: Really, dear – how about ‘tit’?
Chapman: Oh dear, I hadn’t thought about that. ‘Tit.’ ‘Tit.’ Oh, that’s very tinny, isn’t it? ‘Tit.’ ‘Tit.’ Tinny, tinny.
(Cleveland, who has just come in, screams and rushes out again)
Chapman: Oh dear. ‘Ocelot.’ ‘Was-p.’ ‘Yowling.’ Oh dear, I’m bored. Better go and have a bath, I suppose.
Idle: Oh really, must you, dear – you’ve had nine today.
Chapman: All right – I’ll sack one of the servants. Simpkins! Nasty tinny sort of name. SIMPKINS!
(Enter Palin, in RAF uniform)
Palin: I say, mater, cabbage crates coming over the briny.
Idle: Sorry dear, don’t understand.
Palin: Er – cow-catchers creeping up on the conning towers?
Idle: No, sorry old sport.
Palin: Um – caribou nibbling at the croquet hoops.
Idle: Yes, Mansfield shot one in the antlers.