Monty Python's Flying Circus/Headscratchers

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • If Mr. Smoke-too-much has trouble saying the letter 'C', then how come he successfully pronounces it twice (not counting instances when it's next to a K) before Bounder of Adventure finds a suitable solution?

Smoke-too-much: My name's Smoke-too-much, Mr. Smoke-too-much.
Bounder: Well, you'd better cut down a little, then!
Smoke-too-much: ...pardon?
Bounder: You'd better cut down a little, then.
Smoke-too-much: Oh, I see; Smoke-too-much, so I better cut down a little, then.

    • Then, later, and perhaps the most face-palming of all...

Smoke-too-much: I'm afraid I can't pronounce the letter 'B'.

    • All of this falls under Rule of Funny. The Pythons were likely aware of the irony.
      • Duh.
    • He was spelling them with a K.
  • Who filled his hovercraft with eels?
    • Same person who infected him. Maybe Sir William?
    • Considering that the problem was resolved by giving him a matchbook, it's possible that they accumulated over time as his match supply ran low.
  • What do they mean by the "battle of Pearl Harbor"? Do they mean the attack on Pearl Harbor? 'Cause it wasn't really much of a battle as, well, a surprise attack. Do British people call all attacks battles? Or were the Pythons just woefully ignorant of American military terminology?
    • The attack lasted two hours, came in two waves, and resulted in several dozen Japanese people being shot down. It wasn't a particularly long or two-sided battle, but it was a battle. Nothing like a bunch of old ladies having a hand-to-hand skirmish in a mud puddle, but that was exactly the joke.
    • It's fairly clear from the series - by "the battle of Pearl Harbor", they meant "the first heart transplant".
  • Were the cartoons supposed to be creepy? To this day I cannot watch them. The'y're not funny in the slightest to me.
    • Some of them were extremely funny, but yes, there was a certain amount of Nightmare Fuel, such as the red-eyed woman who keeps saying, "Harold? Harold?" (Though even that cartoon was pretty funny nonetheless)
      • Well, it's Terry Gilliam's work, so it's a safe bet that they were just supposed to be surreal. Tip: if cartoons scare you, don't watch any of his films. Never ever.
      • Pre-python, it was always assumed that audiences couldn't handle thirty minutes of wall to wall comedy and so there'd be breaks for 'variety' entertainment - generally a middle of the road singer. It's possible to look at Gilliam's cartoons as fulfilling exactly the same purpose - only more surreally.
  • The first two items on the menu at the Viking-infested diner were "egg and bacon" and "egg, sausage and bacon". Why didn't our spamophobe just order one of those?
    • They were off.
  • Why are people asking questions about this series? I thought almost exclusively, the whole idea of the series was that it made very little sense at all (but was hilarious nonetheless)?
    • Because they believe this is the right place for an argument?
      • No it isn't.
      • Oh, yes it is!
    • Because people by nature seek for explanations of the unexplained?