"The Mouse Problem" is a
Monty Python sketch, first aired on 12 October 1969 as part of ''
Sex and Violence'', the second episode of the first series of ''
Monty Python's Flying Circus''.
Overview
In the sketch, an interviewer (
Terry Jones
Terence Graham Parry Jones (1 February 1942 – 21 January 2020) was a Welsh comedian, director, historian, actor, writer and member of the Monty Python comedy team.
After graduating from Oxford University with a degree in English, Jones and ...
) and linkman (
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 w ...
) for a fictional programme called ''The World Around Us'', investigate the phenomenon of "men
howant to be
mice". The programme bears a striking similarity to an episode of ''
Panorama'';
even its theme tune, the fourth movement of
Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 1, was the theme tune of ''Panorama'' at the time. The sketch was originally written for ''
The Magic Christian'' but was not used.
A "confessor" (
John Cleese) is interviewed about his experience as a mouse: when he was a teenager, he got drunk at a party and experimented with cheese, and gradually came to accept his mouse identity. "It's not a question of wanting to be a mouse — it just sort of happens to you," he tells the interviewer. "All of a sudden you realize… that's what you want to be." The "programme" features undercover footage of a "mouse party", where Cleese explains that "
there's a big clock in the middle of the room, and about 12:50 you climb up it and then... eventually, it strikes one and you all run down". He also points out that there's "
a farmer's wife" present. Then follows a discussion with psychiatrist and conjuror, The Amazing Kargol (
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 ...
), about what attracts men to the mouse lifestyle. A series of
s illustrates societal attitudes towards mice men, and several historical figures who were mice, such as
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, ...
and
Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
, are shown, "and, of course
Hilaire Belloc
Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc (, ; 27 July 187016 July 1953) was a Franco-English writer and historian of the early twentieth century. Belloc was also an orator, poet, sailor, satirist, writer of letters, soldier, and political activist. H ...
," is included. The programme also includes footage of men in mouse costumes being led into police stations, newspaper headlines about mouse scandals and mouse rights demonstrations, and photos of "mouse clubs".
In the original version of the sketch broadcast in 1969, Cleese gave out the telephone number of the mouse man as "01-584 5313". The number was that of
David Frost's production company, which led to a large number of annoying telephone calls to Frost. The sketch was re-edited for the repeat showing in August 1970 to remove this section.
The way of life explored in "The Mouse Problem" is an obvious parody of the secretive lives and social condemnation of
gay men in the 1960s, and the sketch itself mimics the film and interview techniques used in serious television documentary exposés on the subject,
but also makes reference to
transvestism
Transvestism is the practice of dressing in a manner traditionally associated with the opposite sex. In some cultures, transvestism is practiced for religious, traditional, or ceremonial reasons. The term is considered outdated in Western ...
,
recreational drug use,
orgies and other behaviour considered "deviant" by the standards of the late 1960s.
Eric Zorn
Eric Zorn (born January 6, 1958) is a former American op-ed columnist and daily blogger for the ''Chicago Tribune'' who specialized in local news as well as politics.
Early life and education
Zorn is a graduate of the University of Michigan, wher ...
of the ''
Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...
'' notes its similarity to a real 1967 documentary, ''
CBS Reports: The Homosexuals''. Chapman himself, who wrote the sketch, was gay.
More recently, with a somewhat more literal interpretation, the sketch has come to be seen as a presage of the
furry fandom.
See also
*
List of Monty Python's Flying Circus episodes
''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' is a British Surreal humour, surreal sketch comedy series created by and starring Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam, who became known as "Monty Python", for BBC ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mouse Problem, The
Monty Python sketches
Mockumentaries
1969 in LGBT history
1969 in British television
British LGBT-related television episodes