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Upper Class Twit of the Year


The Upper Class Twit of the Year is a classic comedy sketch that was seen on the TV show Monty Python's Flying Circus, and also in a modified format as the finale of the movie And Now For Something Completely Different. It is notable for its satire on dim-witted members of the English upper class.

To a horse race style commentary by John Cleese, we view an obstacle-course race among five stereotypical, upper-class (imbeciles), to determine the 127th Annual Upper-Class Twit of the Year.

The competitors are:

At the start, the twits face the wrong way, so the starter turns them round. They then don't run because they don't know they have to move when the gun goes off. The starter explains the idea to the twits, who respond by laughing and pointing at him.

The obstacles are, in order:

The sketch ends with Gervaise Brook-Hampster coming in first, followed by Smith-Smythe-Smith (shot by Nigel) and Nigel Incubator-Jones in a medal ceremony, while Simon Zinc-Trumpet-Harris manages to club himself unconscious with the butt of his gun. The three coffins of the winning Twits are placed on the medal rostrum and medals are draped around them. Cleese ends his commentary by remarking that "there'll certainly be some car door slamming in the streets of Kensington tonight!" However, in ANFSCD the standings are different with Simon accidentally shooting Vivian into second place then shooting himself into third place and Nigel knocking himself unconscious.

John Cleese has stated that the idea for the "wake the neighbour" part was inspired by an apartment he once rented that was near a bar whose patrons kept him awake at night when they slammed the doors to their cars. This is also mentioned in trivia notes included on the A&E DVD release of Season 1, though the wording there suggests the entire sketch may have been inspired by the people Cleese encountered, not just "wake the neighbour".


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