The Fish Licence is a sketch from Series 2 Episode 10 (''Scott of the Antarctic'') of the popular British television series, ''

Monty Python's Flying Circus ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' (also known as simply ''Monty Python'') is a British surreal sketch comedy series created by and starring Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam, who became know ...

''. It first aired on 1 December 1970.

Eric Praline Mr Eric Praline is a fictional character from the television show ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'', played by comedian John Cleese. Appearances The Monty Python team consciously decided to avoid recurring characters. Along with the Nude Organist ...

(

John Cleese John Marwood Cleese ( ; born 27 October 1939) is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. Emerging from the Cambridge Footlights in the 1960s, he first achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and ...

) is a put-upon customer who seeks to obtain a licence for his pet halibut, Eric, although he has difficulty explaining to the clerk (

Michael Palin Sir Michael Edward Palin (; born 5 May 1943) is an English actor, comedian, writer, television presenter, and public speaker. He was a member of the Monty Python comedy group. Since 1980, he has made a number of travel documentaries. Palin ...

) how all pets should be licensed. The clerk repeatedly calls Praline a "loony", to which Praline angrily replies by naming famous people who kept odd pets.''All the Words: Volume One''. pp. 316-318. Praline even produces "a

dog licence A dog licence is required in some jurisdictions to be the keeper of a dog. Usually a dog-licence identifying number is issued to the owner, along with a dog tag bearing the identifier and a contact number for the registering organization. If a ...

with the word 'dog' crossed out and 'cat' written in crayon", and explains that the man in the "Ministry of Housinge" cat detector van (a parody of the TV detector van) didn't have the right form. All in all, the pets Praline mentions are: *Eric the fish (an

halibut Halibut is the common name for three flatfish in the genera '' Hippoglossus'' and '' Reinhardtius'' from the family of right-eye flounders and, in some regions, and less commonly, other species of large flatfish. The word is derived from ''h ...

) *Eric the dog *Eric the cat *Eric the

fruit bat Megabats constitute the family Pteropodidae of the order Chiroptera ( bats). They are also called fruit bats, Old World fruit bats, or—especially the genera '' Acerodon'' and '' Pteropus''— flying foxes. They are the only member of the ...

* Eric the Half Bee (in the version from ''

Monty Python's Previous Record ''Monty Python's Previous Record'' is the third album by Monty Python. Released in 1972, it marked the group's first collaborations with regular sound engineer Andre Jacquemin as well as musician Neil Innes, who had previously appeared with fut ...

'') In response to the clerk's assurance that there is no such thing as (and no need for) a fish licence, Praline requests a statement to that fact signed by the Lord Mayor. The superhumanly tall Lord Mayor (

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 humour, surreal comedy group Monty Python. He portrayed authority figures such as The Colonel (Monty Pyth ...

), with full regalia and city council entourage, enters the office and hands a thunderstuck Praline the signed statement. An announcer (also Cleese) reverently narrates the exchange, ending by saying that Praline has " gone spare". The sketch then segues to the Lord Mayor and city council members playing a rugby match against the

New Zealand All Blacks The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks ( mi, Ōpango), represents New Zealand in men's international rugby union, which is considered the country's national sport. The team won the Rugby World Cup in 1987 ...

. In the version of the sketch on ''

'', instead of asking for a statement from the Lord Mayor, Praline asks for a bee licence, which leads to the song "

Eric the Half-a-Bee "Eric the Half-a-Bee" is a song by the British comedy troupe Monty Python that was composed by Eric Idle with lyrics co-written with John Cleese. It first appeared as the A-side of the group's second 7" single, released in a mono mix on 17 Novem ...

Trivia

* This is one of several appearances by

. Some others are the

Dead Parrot sketch The "Dead Parrot Sketch", alternatively and originally known as the "Pet Shop Sketch" or "Parrot Sketch", is a sketch from '' Monty Python's Flying Circus'' about a non-existent species of parrot, called a "Norwegian Blue". A satire on poor cu ...

and an appearance as a link the 5th episode of the second series, "Live from the Grill-o-Mat", where he announces he will appear later in the show. He then comes in a few minutes as Inspector Praline in the

Crunchy Frog "Crunchy Frog" is the common name for a Monty Python sketch officially titled "Trade Description Act" (sometimes also known as the "Whizzo Chocolate Company" sketch), inspired by the Trade Descriptions Act 1968 in British law. It features two ...

sketch. *

OpenBSD OpenBSD is a security-focused operating system, security-focused, free and open-source, Unix-like operating system based on the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). Theo de Raadt created OpenBSD in 1995 by fork (software development), forking N ...

's 3.5 release contained a

parody A parody, also known as a spoof, a satire, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), or a caricature, is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Often its su ...

track of both the Fish Licence sketch and the song "

Eric the Half a Bee "Eric the Half-a-Bee" is a song by the British comedy troupe Monty Python that was composed by Eric Idle with lyrics co-written with John Cleese. It first appeared as the A-side of the group's second 7" single, released in a mono mix on 17 Novem ...

", titled "

CARP Carp are various species of oily freshwater fish from the family Cyprinidae, a very large group of fish native to Europe and Asia. While carp is consumed in many parts of the world, they are generally considered an invasive species in parts of ...

Licence and Redundancy Must Be Free".

References

Monty Python sketches {{comedy-tv-episode-stub