Seduced Milkmen is a sketch written and performed by
Monty Python
Monty Python, also known as the Pythons, were a British comedy troupe formed in 1969 consisting of Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin. The group came to prominence for the sketch comedy ser ...
, portraying female sexuality as a trap. The sketch is wordless and just one minute long, but was well received.
[
It first appeared in the third episode of '']Monty Python's Flying Circus
''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' (also known as simply ''Monty Python'') 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, w ...
'', " How to Recognise Different Types of Trees From Quite a Long Way Away", on BBC1
BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and Flagship (broadcasting), flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includ ...
on 19 October 1969. Filming took place in Ullswater Road in Barnes, London.['' Pythonland'', BBC documentary, 1999.]
The sketch also appeared in the first Python film, '' And Now For Something Completely Different'', in which it segues into "The Funniest Joke in the World
"The Funniest Joke in the World" (also "Joke Warfare" and "Killer Joke") is a Monty Python comedy sketch comedy, sketch revolving around a joke that is so funny that anyone who reads or hears it promptly Death from laughter, dies from laughter. ...
" (this sketch being presented as one of the joke-writer's rejected ideas).
The romantic background music in the original television version is " Charmaine" by Mantovani & His Orchestra, while the film version uses the "Liebestod
"" ( German for "love death") is the title of the final, dramatic music from the 1859 opera ' by Richard Wagner. It is the climactic end of the opera, as Isolde sings over Tristan's dead body.
The music is often used in film and television pro ...
" from Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, essayist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most o ...
's ''Tristan und Isolde
''Tristan und Isolde'' (''Tristan and Isolde''), WWV 90, is a music drama in three acts by Richard Wagner set to a German libretto by the composer, loosely based on the medieval 12th-century romance ''Tristan and Iseult'' by Gottfried von Stras ...
''.
Synopsis
The sketch starts with a milkman (Michael Palin
Sir Michael Edward Palin (; born 5 May 1943) is an English actor, comedian, writer, and television presenter. He was a member of the Monty Python comedy group. He received the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award, BAFTA Fellowship in 2013 and was knig ...
) delivering milk to a suburban house. The door opens and a seductive woman (Thelma Taylor in the television version, Carol Cleveland
Carol Cleveland (born Carol Gillian Frances on 13 January 1942) is an American-English actor, comedian, dancer, and model. She is particularly known for her work with Monty Python.
Early life
Born in East Sheen, London, she moved to the United ...
in the film version) steps out and lures the milkman in; the milkman looks around, then enters the house. The woman takes the milkman upstairs, smiling at him and beckoning him with her finger. The milkman cautiously follows her as she unlocks her bedroom door. She opens the door and ushers the milkman inside. As the milkman enters the room, she shuts the door and locks it. The milkman looks around the room and sees several milkmen, some of whom are very old, including one who is a skeleton. Ralph Woodward points out that the plot bears a strong resemblance to that of the poem "La Belle Dame sans Merci
"La Belle Dame sans Merci" ("The Beautiful Lady without Mercy") is a ballad produced by the English poet John Keats in 1819. The title was derived from the title of a 15th-century poem by Alain Chartier called '' La Belle Dame sans Mercy ...
" by John Keats
John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English poet of the second generation of Romantic poets, along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His poems had been in publication for less than four years when he died of tub ...
.
Reception
The sketch was described by Susan Dunne of the ''Hartford Courant
The ''Hartford Courant'' is the largest daily newspaper in the U.S. state of Connecticut, and is advertised as the oldest continuously published newspaper in the United States. A morning newspaper serving most of the state north of New Haven and ...
'' as "one of the funniest things Python ever did".
References
{{Monty Python
Monty Python sketches
Fictional milkmen
Milk in culture