Yes but don't you think that they are taking liberties by calling him Monty Python's accountant. The sketch implies that he already has a job that he has just come from but if he really was Monty Python's accountant he wouldn't be wasting his time doing sketches would he? Surely they would just employ an actor as they are cheaper.
The possibilities of creatively combining multiple skillsets can be quite fascinating. Ponder brick laying and ballet dancing. (Just add social media. ... Or don't. Depends on how cool your employer is.)
When this sketch originally aired, recruitment to the profession of Accountancy suddenly took a serious dive. Almost nobody wanted to be an accountant anymore. The resultant staff shortage was quite long lasting, and dogged the professional body to the point where symposiums were held, such as ... "How to counter the "Python Slur."" The Financial Times reported that the damage to the profession was still noticeable 40 years on.
This is the version from And Now For Something Completely Different. After Idle waves his wand, it transitions into the Blackmail sketch, with Palin as the host.
@@mstalcup Additionally, the Pythons always kept going even when people were laughing. So if the audience laughed too hard or too long they might miss some of the jokes -- it conditioned them to try their best to hold it in.
I think it's better without the laughs. Laugh tracks or laughing audiences on recorded media feel like they're holding up a sign saying "SEE...IT'S FUNNY...YOU SHOULD LAUGH!" everytime a joke comes up. These guys were pros, let the work speak for itself.
"I can say without fear of contradiction that the ideal job for you is accountancy." "But I already am an accountant!" "Jolly good, well back to the office with you!" End sketch.
@@roywatling7036 It's just that kids these days have the attention span of an orange. Sitting trough an entire film, and getting every second absorbed is out of the question. Constantly interrupted by their phones, only glancing up on the screen every now and then if its "loud" enough to grab their attention.
The way Michael Palin's accountant raves, boggle-eyed, about lion taming is sensational acting. He is almost leaping at you out the screen. Utterly compelling. You can smell his insanity!
@@zhouwu Accountants deal with tax law without being tax lawyers, they essentially follow the laws and are meant to ensure 'tax efficiency' and ensuring proper records and documentation are kept and filed, whereas tax lawyers are invoked when there has been a potential breach.
I was an Accountant for twenty years but kept changing employers. I believe this sketch alone helped by putting off many that it resulted in a shortage of Accountants and higher income.
I spoke with a company accountant in the mid-80s, he was saying that this sketch shocked the profession by its portrayal of the public's perception of accountancy. Now my son is training to be an accountant, he thought it was going to be all brilliant people peforming amazing tricks of arithmetic, like besuited versions of Rachel Riley. He's just spent two weeks checking receipts in a buillder's offices...
Welcome to the world of work... Having worked as a PA for 20 years before changing to something more family-suited, I would say to someone starting out, get your qualifications and some good experience in but then look for an interesting environment (media, market research, whatever interests your son). I always worked in "an office" but in lively places with very bright people. Eight years for a newspaper and never two days the same or predictable. I once saw Michael Palin down the corridor (big media group with TV companies) but was too bashful to go and "bump into him". Ah well. Always seems a lovely guy.
Yeah, words to live by if you are so fucking clueless as to not to realize that the word gay has been associated with homosexuality only recently. Far better words to live by exist, idiot. "Do unto others..." is one example.
50 years ago I thought Monty Python was "just too silly". As I grew older; their absolute brilliance became profoundly clear, pure genius. They take their audience on an intellectual / social / historical journey that would be impossible by any other means than their biting humor. There's a great deal to be said for an Oxford education. Kings, serfs, accountants, psychiatrists, soldiers, emperors, lunatics, village idiots, even Jesus Christ all played to rip roaring brilliance, and viciously biting social criticism. Don't miss the other masterpieces like (Faulty Towers). Perfect. 50 years of happy laughter, and weirdness.
@@myview5840 The Four Yorkshiremen and the sketch Constitutional Peasants. I'll put the links up. The Four Yorkshiremen: czcams.com/video/ue7wM0QC5LE/video.html Constitutional Peasants: czcams.com/video/t2c-X8HiBng/video.html
Agreed - this is one group of comedians who never seem dated. One understands the irony better as one ages! My father, a strict Edwardian hated them but I, as a young person, was most amused by the anarchy. Still love them all now.
Michael Palin's facial expressions while Cleese is talking at 2:36 are absolutely genius, he reacts to almost every word Cleese says! He adds so much expression to the character and the scene without even speaking
As a retired CPA I can testify (without any fear of contradiction, I might add) that accountancy is the second dullest profession in the world, surpassed only by Actuarial Science.
I really appreciate 3:15. It actually makes the scene stand apart from most other comedy, including Python comedy. That little pause, that little silence is something that few directors/writers would be willing to put into their scene since they'd always want something going on for fear of losing peoples' interest. The pause doesn't give a joke and isn't funny, but helps the humour since it helps build these people as real people rather than vessels to deliver funny lines. It's just a little pause of "Do I really want to deal with this?" before he speaks.
One of my favourite little subtleties in the sketch is when Cleese says 'well back to the office with you then' Palin,picking up hat to go then realises-'...no,you don't understand etc.
"Lemming, Lemming, Lemming of the CPA! Lemming, Lemming, Lemming of the CP Lemming of the CP CP CP A-A-A!" "It's a man's life in the Certified Public Accountancy."
@David of Yorkshire and if you were addressing me, I didn't say it either, and I knew about his background, because I heard him live during his last US lecture tour. I'm hoping that you hit the wrong "reply" button and weren't talking to either of us. Cheers, a fellow Python fan.
A person reviewing a lego mindstorm set made the point that "if you are not itching to buy this set immediately, you either have your own fully equipped robotics lab, or you'd make an excellent accountant".
Before they joined up with the other later Python members, he made the condition that he only join if they allowed Palin to join too. Cleese thought Palin was the funniest man he ever saw. Just look up the 'Sergeant Major' sketch from "The Meaning Of Life (1983)"
one of the most brilliant comedy sketches of all time, a gem... career change is hard, kids, try to get it right the first time. My transition to career #2 took 10 years.
These guys were absolutely geniuses. The manic facial expressions are just so British and so hilarious. Monty Python for an 8-10 year was pure hilarity.
We do. They take form as youtube sketches now. Aunty Donna, Gus Johnson, and Joel Haver are all examples I like that have taken pages out of Monty Python's book.
Woke up, got outta bed, dragged a comb across my head. Now MP could have carried on this sketch and kept twisting it into a different shape like the Fab 4 did with a Day in the Life. Comedy can take the form of music
This sketch mirrors most people in the work place today - they think they can do a job, they apply and are interviewed by people who are exactly the same as the interviewee - they take up all roles in society, with no idea how to do anything and the wheel goes round - and the wheel goes round
This was mostly a bit like accounting, but the interaction with the cutaway shot of the lion was completely brilliant in every way, didn't expect it one bit
@@wombataldebaran9686 This...might be the one single best description of anything, that I have ever heard. I can't even put into words how accurate it is. you sir, have put your mind on something and reached a state of perfection that humanity has otherwise never achieved. This is so good, it is literally ineffable. Nice job. Keep it up.
This style of comedy by The Pythons came out of left field,it was so different and very unique that growing up watching them on our local PBS station got us hooked right away even my very conservative father couldn’t wait for Saturday nights to come around later in the evening Saturday night live would air around 11:30!
I don't know how that appearance in the end caught me off guard, considering that this is exactly the type of stuff that happens in Python all the time, but it sure did.
I've been been a lion tamer for years, unfortunately when you get "chewed out" or you've just got your "head ripped off" at work it's much more serious.
"Anteaters don't frighten me." Actually anteaters have long razor-sharp claws they use to break open anthills. The claws are so long that they litterally walk on the "back of their hands" so the claws don't get in the way. Anteaters will rip a jaguar open with one slash. Let alone a chartered accountant.
Fun fact. Here in Brazil a guy managed to get killed by an anteater. His dogs were harassing the animal (which was cornered) and when the guy showed up it slashed at his upper leg, severing the artery. Shit happens, eh?
This is no longer true for the Accounting profession, it is no longer boring- it's soul crushingly frustrating. You will spend most of your time trying to fix other people's mistakes, be yelled at by ignorant and shady clients, attempt to keep up to date with various laws so that you don't end up in jail and work hundreds of unpaid hours just to get things done. You will have 50 things to do in a week, which you will only be able to get to about 15-20. Then the next batch comes in and you have to catch up unpaid overtime on weekends just to scrape by. You will never get a sense of closure on your work as there's no time to reflect on things and you will never be completely satisfied with your output.
@@rubz1390 An accountant as described in this clip: An appallingly dull fellow, unimaginative, timid, spineless, easily dominated, tedious company, and irrepressibly drab and awful" Add to that list: humorless.
@@rubz1390 , seems, on top of everything else, you suffer from narcissism : first you talk endlessly about your situation, then when someone makes a little joke as I did, you get very upset when you could have just simply gone along with it.
Despite my parents' best efforts, I never gave in to their attempts to make me an accountant. I think it was because of this sketch! Python really had it in for accountants.
Michael Palin is a first-rate comic character actor, as well as a great writer. He was the Pythons’ most versatile performer, IMO. And he’s a truly kind and decent man, more than most comedians.
The juxtaposition of realities here is so funny and clever. Whereas Palin is fantasy-pathetic-funny, Cleese is so close to a real person (a career guidance counsellor) as to be ironic and funny at the same time ... the old straight man vs comic, but in reverse. The laughs come from both characters. Pure twisted genius.
40+ years on, this skit feels like it had been written yesterday by a very funny skit writer. It hasn't aged at all. If you haven't seen it (and others) on "And Now for Something Completely Different," you have not lived. You OWE it to yourself.
After all these years it occurred to me now that this could be the inspiration for the part where George Costanza considers alternative careers after quitting his job.
As an accountant myself I can say that this video seems less like a comedy and more like a documentary.
Yes but don't you think that they are taking liberties by calling him Monty Python's accountant. The sketch implies that he already has a job that he has just come from but if he really was Monty Python's accountant he wouldn't be wasting his time doing sketches would he? Surely they would just employ an actor as they are cheaper.
You, sir, are irrepressibly drab and awful :)
Ha ha ha
oh dear
@@sharonjuniorchess
That's a good one!
this makes me glad I avoided the repetitive, tediously dull career of accountancy, by becoming a software engineer
But at least you master sarcasm
That's literally me. Though I have yet to recover from being dull, timid, spineless etc.
man Dev's are the only people in tech i know that have any freedom at all. lol.
If you're a web dev then it's not much different lol
lol. I went from horse taming to software engineering.
Sadly, few make the leap from accountancy to lion taming.
Dennis Vance 😂😂
Dennis Vance Not in one go. Intermediate stages are advised. Banking. Insurance.
I would say fortunately few make the leap
Dennis Vance What about if you have two hats
This for sure is the best comment I've ever read
Palin is straight up killing it here. His unbridled enthusiasm bouncing off of Cleese's reserved skepticism is pure comedy genius.
Both of them are brilliant here, and much more practiced and polished than their original BBC TV version.
ya dare kiling it
"Killing it" ? That's not very nice. What is it that he's killing ?
@@ElvarMasson it's a way of saying that his acting was brilliant
@@fabriziomorris5320 "ya dare killing it" is a way of saying that his acting was brilliant ? Well, I never !! 😄
Man, I laughed when he started rattling off the tax concessions he could get for the lion taming hat...
The possibilities of creatively combining multiple skillsets can be quite fascinating.
Ponder brick laying and ballet dancing. (Just add social media. ... Or don't. Depends on how cool your employer is.)
When this sketch originally aired, recruitment to the profession of Accountancy suddenly took a serious dive. Almost nobody wanted to be an accountant anymore. The resultant staff shortage was quite long lasting, and dogged the professional body to the point where symposiums were held, such as ... "How to counter the "Python Slur."" The Financial Times reported that the damage to the profession was still noticeable 40 years on.
Good. Many people saved from a fate worse than death.
I'm guessing recruitment for the profession of Lion Tamer sky rocketed
I love these type of facts, thank you
They all went into lumberjacking!!!!
Someone has to put the numbers in the columns though....
As an anteater tamer, I can say there is something interestingly disturbing with this sketch.
As someone who has watched hood nature, I agree
Why did this make me laugh so much? well played
I think a strong cup of "Tiger Brand Coffee" will fix you up right. 👍
As someone who also owns a hat, i would like to say that i can understand his motivation to tame ant eaters....🐜
Have you ever thought about taking up another job... accountancy perhaps?
I'm not used to seeing this without hearing a laugh track. It must be a rare version. I love it.
This is the version from And Now For Something Completely Different. After Idle waves his wand, it transitions into the Blackmail sketch, with Palin as the host.
They never had a laugh track on this. Monty Python's Flying Circus studio sketches were done in front of a live audience
@@martinputt6421 Ah! Thank you. I didn't know that.
@@mstalcup Additionally, the Pythons always kept going even when people were laughing. So if the audience laughed too hard or too long they might miss some of the jokes -- it conditioned them to try their best to hold it in.
I think it's better without the laughs. Laugh tracks or laughing audiences on recorded media feel like they're holding up a sign saying "SEE...IT'S FUNNY...YOU SHOULD LAUGH!" everytime a joke comes up. These guys were pros, let the work speak for itself.
"I can say without fear of contradiction that the ideal job for you is accountancy."
"But I already am an accountant!"
"Jolly good, well back to the office with you!"
End sketch.
...which is why the Pythons were brilliant, original & innovative sketch writers, and you, well, perhaps not.
@@roywatling7036
That's a good one!
@@roywatling7036 surely there must be other careers more suitable for him...?
@@roywatling7036 It's just that kids these days have the attention span of an orange. Sitting trough an entire film, and getting every second absorbed is out of the question. Constantly interrupted by their phones, only glancing up on the screen every now and then if its "loud" enough to grab their attention.
"My job here is done !"
The way Michael Palin's accountant raves, boggle-eyed, about lion taming is sensational acting. He is almost leaping at you out the screen. Utterly compelling. You can smell his insanity!
Some call it insanity others call it enthusiasm for lion taming.
Hell yeah, amazing scene!
They were all extremely talented and blended perfectly as one team. Their feature films are remarkable.
Please note that the Companies Act of 2006 has withdrawn Paragraph 335
@Petefirside Space Only if he trusts his wife (re Shawshank...).
@Petefirside Space
Wait. So accountants double up as tax lawyers? How does that work?
@Petefirside Space
Why does this sound like something straight out of Rainman?
@Petefirside Space
It does to me.
@@zhouwu Accountants deal with tax law without being tax lawyers, they essentially follow the laws and are meant to ensure 'tax efficiency' and ensuring proper records and documentation are kept and filed, whereas tax lawyers are invoked when there has been a potential breach.
I was an Accountant for twenty years but kept changing employers. I believe this sketch alone helped by putting off many that it resulted in a shortage of Accountants and higher income.
Yeah, morons...
my aunt is an accountant in kommerzbank and she likes it very much
@@obelixpfeifenreiniger2863 My aunt is a lion who works for Deutsche Bank
@@mindfuldrone chacun a ca facon
@@mindfuldrone i take it your uncle was a great lion tamer.
"what do you want to be?" I was waiting for him to say a Lumberjack! Wrong sketch.
MrBlinkee or a window cleaner?
😆
I don't remember the window cleaner. But I'll look it up
Same… "Leaping from tree to tree! As they float down the mighty rivers of British Columbia!"
I'm a lumberjack and I'm ok,
I work all night and sleep all day!
I like how he just projects a clip of a lion into his mind's eye.
He is easily scared, so much so that stuff beyond the fourth wall does the job.
I spoke with a company accountant in the mid-80s, he was saying that this sketch shocked the profession by its portrayal of the public's perception of accountancy. Now my son is training to be an accountant, he thought it was going to be all brilliant people peforming amazing tricks of arithmetic, like besuited versions of Rachel Riley. He's just spent two weeks checking receipts in a buillder's offices...
Welcome to the world of work... Having worked as a PA for 20 years before changing to something more family-suited, I would say to someone starting out, get your qualifications and some good experience in but then look for an interesting environment (media, market research, whatever interests your son). I always worked in "an office" but in lively places with very bright people. Eight years for a newspaper and never two days the same or predictable. I once saw Michael Palin down the corridor (big media group with TV companies) but was too bashful to go and "bump into him". Ah well. Always seems a lovely guy.
@@sarac.3259 like project management - depends a lot on the industry, and even on the particular company.
@@sarac.3259 How does one gain the credentials necessary to become a Prince Albert? (/j)
Then again accountant was reason why Al Capone went to jail for long time, because tax fraud would stick.
@@vksasdgaming9472 Ouch!!!
_"Enough of this gay banter!"_ - words to live by
What's wrong with gay banter
@@jayazathoth8530 thats exactly what is wrong with it. GAY banter.
@@connorhall70 Lol, your username is accurate, homophobic douche.
Yeah, words to live by if you are so fucking clueless as to not to realize that the word gay has been associated with homosexuality only recently. Far better words to live by exist, idiot. "Do unto others..." is one example.
@@Earthneedsado-over177 I don't know but "do unto others" sounds kind of gay to me.
"An appallingly dull fellow, unimaginative, timid, spineless, easily dominated, tedious company, and irrepressibly drab and awful" 🤪😏😂
@Bill McQ Pence!
that sounds like me
sounds like Trump
@@vincentkermorgant Pence by a mile
@@vincentkermorgant Trump's far too inventively awful to be dull. Dull-witted? Maybe, but not dull.
50 years ago I thought Monty Python was "just too silly". As I grew older; their absolute brilliance became profoundly clear, pure genius. They take their audience on an intellectual / social / historical journey that would be impossible by any other means than their biting humor. There's a great deal to be said for an Oxford education. Kings, serfs, accountants, psychiatrists, soldiers, emperors, lunatics, village idiots, even Jesus Christ all played to rip roaring brilliance, and viciously biting social criticism. Don't miss the other masterpieces like (Faulty Towers). Perfect. 50 years of happy laughter, and weirdness.
Ministry of Funny walks, and the one were he pays for an argument, are 2 of my favourites
@@myview5840 The Four Yorkshiremen and the sketch Constitutional Peasants.
I'll put the links up.
The Four Yorkshiremen:
czcams.com/video/ue7wM0QC5LE/video.html
Constitutional Peasants:
czcams.com/video/t2c-X8HiBng/video.html
You should have just got stoned.
Agreed - this is one group of comedians who never seem dated. One understands the irony better as one ages! My father, a strict Edwardian hated them but I, as a young person, was most amused by the anarchy. Still love them all now.
+ripping yarns.
Michael Palin's facial expressions while Cleese is talking at 2:36 are absolutely genius, he reacts to almost every word Cleese says! He adds so much expression to the character and the scene without even speaking
1:27 too.
Indeed he is funny !
As a retired CPA I can testify (without any fear of contradiction, I might add) that accountancy is the second dullest profession in the world, surpassed only by Actuarial Science.
As an actuary, I concur.
@@JohnSmith-ey9xs As another actuary, I can also concur that I have a very boring job, and that I am a very boring man. Oh dear, 9 pm. Time for bed
@@radscorpion8 what no way... I'm quite sad to hear that, to me it seemed interesting and I thought I'd like to get into it
@@JohnSmith-ey9xs :(
@@JohnSmith-ey9xs and a cricket umpire in your spare time?
I really appreciate 3:15. It actually makes the scene stand apart from most other comedy, including Python comedy. That little pause, that little silence is something that few directors/writers would be willing to put into their scene since they'd always want something going on for fear of losing peoples' interest. The pause doesn't give a joke and isn't funny, but helps the humour since it helps build these people as real people rather than vessels to deliver funny lines. It's just a little pause of "Do I really want to deal with this?" before he speaks.
One of my favourite little subtleties in the sketch is when Cleese says 'well back to the office with you then' Palin,picking up hat to go then realises-'...no,you don't understand etc.
This sketch inspired me to become a chartered accountant.
Damnit you ignored the warning at your own peril.
Was it worth it?
"It's fun to charter an accountant, and sail the wide accountancy" M Python
Honestly, accountancy sounds like my kinda life.
This sketch inspired my best friend to become a Lion tamer.. R.I.P Ernest Scribbler .
Michael Palin was flippin' adorable in this sketch.
Michael Palin is adorable. He is noted for it. It is is one of his endearing traits. What's more, it's unscripted.
Never bettered . Timeless. Even made my wife laugh and she is an accountant. Been trying to get her into lion taming .
probabaly best to do it in steps.. get her into insurance; life insurance and make out a big policy for herself before she leaps into the rrrriing
Cheaper than a divorce yeah?!?
I watched this sketch long before I started my first accounting class. Now I have an accounting degree. Still love the sketch to this day.
@@adsterpatel2226 I saw that... nice one
Get her a hat.
I should have seen this skit before I started studying for the CPA
did it put you off?
Aye man, how did it turn out?
Do you have it 😂😂😂?
"Lemming, Lemming,
Lemming of the CPA!
Lemming, Lemming,
Lemming of the CP
Lemming of the CP
CP CP A-A-A!"
"It's a man's life in the Certified Public Accountancy."
The only sketch where Cleese is eminently reasonable, kind, and diplomatic. The only one where he could do what he did in real life.
I've seen Cleese out of character and he's not kind or reasonable, or even diplomatic. He's really quite a pompous toad.
@David of Yorkshire If you're addressing me, I didn't say that comedians have to be nice.
@David of Yorkshire and if you were addressing me, I didn't say it either, and I knew about his background, because I heard him live during his last US lecture tour. I'm hoping that you hit the wrong "reply" button and weren't talking to either of us. Cheers, a fellow Python fan.
I wasn't addressing you.
@@beverlywilcox4349 I wasn't addressing you, either.
One of my all-time favorite Monty Python sketches! Couldn't stop laughing after seeing it for the first time!🤣
Classic Python!
I have no idea why CZcams has suddenly decided to recommend me Monty Python videos but i like it, carry on.
And now for something completely different
No, it's Monty Python.
Did you maybe watch sociological documentaries lately? 🤔
I love the detail at 0:38 where his urge for a second is to just take his hat and leave and immediately accept defeat...
Further confirming the accuracy of his personality assessment.
A person reviewing a lego mindstorm set made the point that "if you are not itching to buy this set immediately, you either have your own fully equipped robotics lab, or you'd make an excellent accountant".
Such a great sketch. And like all good comedy, It has aged well and is still very funny!
Love it when I find a Monty Python sketch I havent yet seen
@@simonrobbins8357 Yeah, that's the only film of theirs I haven't got around to seeing. I should free up some time to do it.
I cannot believe the good quality of this film. So well made.
Have watched this over & over. Brilliant & so original. Cleese & Palin are just too fantastic!!
The way John Cleese says 'yes' straight after he says 'lion tamer!!!' is priceless
“Accountancy does this to people.” Indeed.
"It's sad. But THIS is what accountancy does to people." So true :-)
Man always loved this gig!! These two are totally cool!!
Palin is on fire in this one! He plays the part with total conviction.
Before they joined up with the other later Python members, he made the condition that he only join if they allowed Palin to join too.
Cleese thought Palin was the funniest man he ever saw.
Just look up the 'Sergeant Major' sketch from "The Meaning Of Life (1983)"
one of the most brilliant comedy sketches of all time, a gem... career change is hard, kids, try to get it right the first time. My transition to career #2 took 10 years.
It's extremely time consuming for sure. I'm on career #2, and the full transition took about 8 years.
These guys were absolutely geniuses. The manic facial expressions are just so British and so hilarious. Monty Python for an 8-10 year was pure hilarity.
One of my favourite sketches..along with the argument sketch.
The acting in this sketch is absolutely top notch.
"work your way *toward* lion taming like via banking or insurance" LOL. dead 😂😂😂
_'Do you like working with children? Because I can offer you baby steps.'_
I love this sketch! "Has he got his own hat?" Lololol!
Michael Palin's face in the thumbnail is the best thing ever
I love when Monty Python uses cutaways. The lion bit had me 😯
These guys, the entire Python Crew, were bloody geniuses.
The world needs this type of humor again.
We do. They take form as youtube sketches now. Aunty Donna, Gus Johnson, and Joel Haver are all examples I like that have taken pages out of Monty Python's book.
It is a pleasure to see these clips in so high resolution.
Woke up, got outta bed, dragged a comb across my head. Now MP could have carried on this sketch and kept twisting it into a different shape like the Fab 4 did with a Day in the Life. Comedy can take the form of music
What an interesting point of view! I agree!!
This sketch mirrors most people in the work place today - they think they can do a job, they apply and are interviewed by people who are exactly the same as the interviewee - they take up all roles in society, with no idea how to do anything and the wheel goes round - and the wheel goes round
1:49 how John Cleese kept a straight face there I'll never know.
You forget (maybe it's just me) how good the performances were. Real good.
The ads obscuring the video at the end well before it was done were a great touch. Along with the annoying embedded subtitles.
The pure conviction in his voice as he says the thing has me comatose
This was mostly a bit like accounting, but the interaction with the cutaway shot of the lion was completely brilliant in every way, didn't expect it one bit
I think in the original TV sketch, Cleese just held up a photo of a lion and made a roaring noise, which to me is actually funnier in a way.
You have to remember that everyone seeing this in theaters already had the TV sketches memorized so they had to mix things up a bit.
My mother was an accountant (retired now) she loved numbers and helped many companies!
I love this sketch!😂
There be that legendary Monty Python acting.. Though this skit really felt so compelling and genuine.
it was something outside of compelling. If it was just compelling it wouldn't have been funny
"Jolly good! Back to the office with you then!" 😂😂😂
could be worse, at least he's not a lawyer
A TAMER, not a lion scarer.
Accountants are those who want to be layers but lack the needed potential for evil.
The only difference between an accountant and a lawyer is that the accountant is aware that he is boring.
@@wombataldebaran9686 This...might be the one single best description of anything, that I have ever heard. I can't even put into words how accurate it is. you sir, have put your mind on something and reached a state of perfection that humanity has otherwise never achieved. This is so good, it is literally ineffable.
Nice job. Keep it up.
Wow you people are incredibly judgmental, as well as ignorant.
A breath of fresh air...The days of laughter!
This style of comedy by The Pythons came out of left field,it was so different and very unique that growing up watching them on our local PBS station got us hooked right away even my very conservative father couldn’t wait for Saturday nights to come around later in the evening Saturday night live would air around 11:30!
I don't know how that appearance in the end caught me off guard, considering that this is exactly the type of stuff that happens in Python all the time, but it sure did.
I've been been a lion tamer for years, unfortunately when you get "chewed out" or you've just got your "head ripped off" at work it's much more serious.
Ever thought about accountancy for a career change?
"Anteaters don't frighten me." Actually anteaters have long razor-sharp claws they use to break open anthills. The claws are so long that they litterally walk on the "back of their hands" so the claws don't get in the way. Anteaters will rip a jaguar open with one slash. Let alone a chartered accountant.
...the type of drab explanation only an accountant can give!
Fun fact. Here in Brazil a guy managed to get killed by an anteater. His dogs were harassing the animal (which was cornered) and when the guy showed up it slashed at his upper leg, severing the artery. Shit happens, eh?
but they're sweet little things and make lovely pets as long as you don't mind them knocking holes in your walls looking for ants.
Haha - still the funniest comedy show there is, 50 odd years later
Hey there! Accounting is awesome! We get to watch hundreds of thousands of dollars pass us by!
I used to be an Accountant and I can confirm this portrayal is bang on...
Thank you, Mr Jandric, for unearthing this gem.
This sketch stands out as one of the funniest of funniest.
This is no longer true for the Accounting profession, it is no longer boring- it's soul crushingly frustrating. You will spend most of your time trying to fix other people's mistakes, be yelled at by ignorant and shady clients, attempt to keep up to date with various laws so that you don't end up in jail and work hundreds of unpaid hours just to get things done. You will have 50 things to do in a week, which you will only be able to get to about 15-20. Then the next batch comes in and you have to catch up unpaid overtime on weekends just to scrape by. You will never get a sense of closure on your work as there's no time to reflect on things and you will never be completely satisfied with your output.
Yes, depressing. Have you ever thought of a new field, lion taming perhaps ?
@@ndogg20 No, I heard there are too many clowns involved, like you.
@@rubz1390 An accountant as described in this clip: An appallingly dull fellow, unimaginative, timid, spineless, easily dominated, tedious company, and irrepressibly drab and awful" Add to that list: humorless.
@@ndogg20 Atleast accoutants don't appear to be arrogant, provocative and condescending.
@@rubz1390 , seems, on top of everything else, you suffer from narcissism : first you talk endlessly about your situation, then when someone makes a little joke as I did, you get
very upset when you could have just simply gone along with it.
Despite my parents' best efforts, I never gave in to their attempts to make me an accountant. I think it was because of this sketch! Python really had it in for accountants.
I love this series!
My grandfather was an accountant. And knowing him I can confidently claim that this sketch is absolutely correct.
Absolutely delightful! There is so much Python I haven't seen yet.
What a great actor Michael Palin is.... bust my ribs with his “Biggus Dickus” and his “Fish Called Wanda” torture scenes..
It's fun to charter an accountant, and sail the wide accountant sea.
I love the surnames they pick for their characters!
And think, when this was made a hedge manager was most lightly a gardener 😂
When this was made they were called gardeners.
Also, the other ones are only called hedge fund managers, I think.
“ I’ve got a hat!” 😂😂
Michael Palin is a first-rate comic character actor, as well as a great writer. He was the Pythons’ most versatile performer, IMO. And he’s a truly kind and decent man, more than most comedians.
I love how Palin imagines what lion taming might involve. The wee finger wag at 2:09 just cracks me up.
The juxtaposition of realities here is so funny and clever. Whereas Palin is fantasy-pathetic-funny, Cleese is so close to a real person (a career guidance counsellor) as to be ironic and funny at the same time ... the old straight man vs comic, but in reverse. The laughs come from both characters. Pure twisted genius.
Another funny swapped reality is the "Working class playwright" sketch.
@@draquone He was just analyzing a clever joke, I bet he didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition.
@@draquone probably...the most pompous ones are the most insecure ones every single time.
@@rabola55 One of Graham Chapman's finest moments.
I used to think I was indecisive, but now I'm not so sure.
Thirty years as a nurse now a guitarist. Sweet 🎸
I love that insurance is somewhere between accountant and lion tamer.
Or banking. It’s a man’s life, isn’t it?
"And what qualifications do you have?"
"I've got a hat"
Sounds like a job interview in Georgia.
🧚🏼♀️ And SO you SHALL!
40+ years on, this skit feels like it had been written yesterday by a very funny skit writer. It hasn't aged at all. If you haven't seen it (and others) on "And Now for Something Completely Different," you have not lived. You OWE it to yourself.
After all these years it occurred to me now that this could be the inspiration for the part where George Costanza considers alternative careers after quitting his job.
“So you can tame them in the dark when they’re less stroppy.” Hahaha!
3:36 seems to imply this simple guidance counsellor has the ability to telepathically project mental images at people.
yes
It is history.
That deserves to be remembered.
I’m a third of my way into becoming an accountant so seeing this now, is great
I made the leap from accountancy to lion taming last year. Like so many before me, I have never looked back.
I'm sorry that you were eaten by a lion shortly after changing careers, but really, why didn't you listen to John Cleese and try banking?
"And so you shall " 😂😂😂
I saw a documentary that says anteaters have claws that can disembowel lions in one swing
Mr Anchovy, every time I order pizza I think of this sketch and chuckle.. "work your way towards that say via banking or insurance" ;0)