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The Undertakers sketch (written by
Graham Chapman Graham Chapman (8 January 1941 – 4 October 1989) was a British actor, comedian and writer. He was one of the six members of the surreal comedy group Monty Python. He portrayed authority figures such as The Colonel and the lead role in two P ...
and John Cleese) is a comedy sketch from the 26th episode of '' Monty Python's Flying Circus'', entitled "Royal Episode 13". It was the final sketch of the thirteenth and final episode of the second season, and was perhaps the most notorious of the Python team's television sketches.


Plot

The sketch begins when a quietly spoken man (Cleese) takes his dead mother to an undertakers' office. The tactless undertaker (Chapman) suggests they can " burn 'er, bury 'er, or dump 'er in the
Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...
", but rules out the last option after Cleese confirms that he liked his mother. Of the other two, the undertaker says both are "nasty" and describes the sordid details. When the son shows the undertaker his mother's body, which is in a sack, he sees that the dead woman "looks quite young". He tells his assistant, Fred ( Eric Idle) that he thinks they've "got an eater", to which Fred responds that he'll get the oven warm. The grieving son is shocked by the idea of eating his mother's corpse, but eventually succumbs to "feeling a bit peckish". He still feels uneasy, but when the undertaker suggests digging a grave for him to throw up into (in case he feels "a bit guilty afterwards"), he agrees.


Production

The
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
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were wary of the sketch, and reluctantly agreed to let it go ahead on the condition that the studio audience were heard to protest loudly, then invade the set at the sketch's conclusion. This was poorly executed: the audience began booing and shouting too early (those who were not heckling were laughing), and because of studio fire regulations, only a limited section of the crowd were allowed to rush onto the studio floor; the rest simply sat there looking awkward. (As Roger Wilmut pointed out in the book ''From Fringe To Flying Circus'', a genuinely shocked (British) audience would have reacted with an embarrassed silence.) Following its initial broadcast of the sketch in 1970, the BBC wiped the sketch from the master tape and replaced it with the "Spot the Braincell" sketch from episode 7 of the second series ("The Attila the Hun Show"). However, when the second series was released on BBC Video in 1985, episode 13 was "restored", thanks to the discovery of a (low quality) copy of the sketch that appears to be sourced from either an off-air recording of a foreign duplicate of the original show, or possibly Terry Jones' own home tape copy. This restored episode was finally shown again on television in 1987 as part of a complete (if frequently interrupted) run of second and third series repeats.


Context

The sketch was part of a longer
running joke A running gag, or running joke, is a literary device that takes the form of an amusing joke or a comical reference and appears repeatedly throughout a work of literature or other form of storytelling. Though they are similar, catchphrases are not ...
within the episode, which was that they expected Queen
Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...
to watch the show at some point. Having had interjections throughout the show ("She's switched to ITV!"), the final scene, after the desultory audience invasion, has the entire studio coming to a halt (including the portion of the audience that had rushed the stage) and standing at attention while the music to "
God Save the Queen "God Save the King" is the national and/or royal anthem of the United Kingdom, most of the Commonwealth realms, their territories, and the British Crown Dependencies. The author of the tune is unknown and it may originate in plainchant, bu ...
" is played, and the end credits roll. To juxtapose the joke that the Queen would be watching, the episode also deliberately featured many of Monty Python's most tasteless sketches. This sketch, the last in both the episode and the second series, immediately followed the "
Lifeboat sketch Monty Python's Lifeboat (Cannibalism) sketch appeared on ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' in Episode 26. It was also performed on the album, '' Another Monty Python Record'', retitled "Still No Sign Of Land". The sketch was inspired by the famous ...
" (also about cannibalism) and some graphically cannibalistic animation from
Terry Gilliam Terrence Vance Gilliam (; born 22 November 1940) is an American-born British filmmaker, comedian, animator, actor and former member of the Monty Python comedy troupe. Gilliam has directed 13 feature films, including '' Time Bandits'' (1981), '' ...
. Nevertheless, it was this sketch which was most notorious for its tastelessness, and Cleese made specific reference to it alone in his eulogy for Chapman, when recalling Chapman's talent for pushing the boundaries of bad taste.


Miscellany

This sketch should not be confused with the "Undertakers film" from episode 11 of series 1. The Undertakers film showed, in several snippets throughout the episode, a team of increasingly fatigued undertakers struggling to carry a coffin through the streets. An audio version of the sketch, minus audience interruptions, was recorded in 1971 for the team's second album ''
Another Monty Python Record ''Another Monty Python Record'' is the second album produced by the Monty Python comedy group, released in 1971. Dissatisfied with their monaural BBC debut album released the previous year, the group took full control of the follow-up, which w ...
''.


References

{{Monty Python Monty Python sketches Fiction about death Black comedy Fiction about funerals Cannibalism in fiction Fictional undertakers