#mr. mousebender

[blondebrainpowered]

Monty Python’s Flying Circus - Cheese Shop, 1972

[xerohourcheese]

WHAT.THE.F*CK.NETFLIX?

We are rewatching Monty Python's Flying Circus on Netflix, and watched 'Salad Days'  (series 3 episode 7) which contains the original 'Cheese Shop Sketch.'  Now due to Tonka Toy Legs ( @pink-yarrow ) being hard of hearing, we use the subtitle function.

As any fans of all things Pythonesque will know, Cleese's character Mr Mousebender (not his eponymous Mr Praline as some believe) several times  says things in an overly 'flowery' manner which Mr Wensleydale (Palin) doesn't understand so Mr Mousebender says it again in a more simplified form, albeit in a broad 'cod Yorkshire' accent. I'm from Yorkshire, I know what it sounds like. Anyone from the entire f*cking UK will tell you it is a cod Yorkshire accent. But not, apparently, the idiot in charge of providing subtitles for the episode. This person, for some unknown reason, identifies it as a SCOUSE accent. The only things the Scouse accent and the Yorkshire accent have in common is they both are from the North of England and are both based on the English language. Yes, you could argue they are the same thing, but I'm feeling generous. My point is, they sound nothing alike. For crying out loud, the cod Yorkshire accent Cleese uses has more in common with the Mummerset accent.

[oupacademic]

You do have some cheese, do you?

Monty Python, a British comedy troupe, first showed their iconic sketch “The Cheese Shop” on 30 September 1972, in Episode 33 of the BBC series Monty Python’s Flying Circus, entitled “Salad Days.” It was one of several Monty Python “across the counter” sketches, a frequently used premise that also includes such famed sketches as “The Dead Parrot,” “The Ministry of Silly Walks” and “The Argument Clinic.”

In “The Cheese Shop,” a man identified in the script as Mr. Mousebender, played by John Cleese, enters a cheese shop—Ye Old Cheese Emporium—to negotiate the “vending of some cheesey comestibles.”  There he encounters the cheesemonger, Mr. Wensleydale, and a bazouki band, whose presence is not explained.  No cheese is visible.  Mr. Mousebender attempts without success and with increasing frustration to order several cheeses. Each request is met with a response ranging from a simple “no” to “the van broke down”, “never at the end of the week”, and “the cat’s eaten it”.  He orders a total of 42 cheeses, including the fictional Venezuelan Beaver Cheese, although this number did change slightly in later performances.  One final desperate query reveals that the shop has no cheese at all and results in the exasperated Mr. Mousebender drawing a pistol, shooting Mr. Wensleydale in the head, and, in a non-sequitor ending typical of Monty Python sketches, donning a 10-gallon hat and riding off into the final scene of a Western movie: “Rogue Cheddar.”

Matthew Rubiner, owner Rubiner's Cheesemongers & Grocers and rubi's café in Great Barrington, Massachusetts reflects on a classic cheese sketch in The Oxford Companion to Cheese. We think this is just what is needed for today-- Cheese Lovers Day.