Fetchez la Vache! Cool Monty Python Animal Stories Quiz

Answer: Caribou

Eric fired a shot at the pesky caribou, but why there is a caribou in 1920's rural England is never explained!
"Ocelot" and "vole" are both considered woody words, but the debate on "antelope" is not conclusive. The only badger that features in Pythonese is a wooden one, in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail".

Only half the gang were involved - Eric Idle, Graham Chapman and Michael Palin, with the honorary female Python, Carol Cleveland.

This woody question was submitted by ozzz2002

Answer: Rabbit from the Cave of Caerbannog

In a hilarious scene, Tim the Enchanter warns King Arthur and his partially intrepid band about the peril lurking within the dark maw of the Cave of Caerbannog. Out hops a white bunny rabbit creating immediate disdain for Tim's forecast of disaster. However, the rabbit soon reveals itself to be a lethal killer, leaping (as if a puppet - which it was!) from exposed throat to exposed throat. Carnage ensues with John Cleese as Tim yelling 'I warned you' in a Scottish brogue. In panic, Brother Maynard is asked to deploy the powerful artifact, the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch. The instructions involve counting to three then 'lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe'. In true fashion, counting to three is a confused mess involving skipping three and going straight to five, expressly against the instructions. Nevertheless the projected hand grenade eventually does its task and the killer rabbit 'snuffs it'.

Question from Phoenix Rising member, MikeMaster99, who has been captivated by this film for decades and enjoyed taking his family to watch a live version of the derived musical, 'Spamalot'.

Answer: Eric the Half a Bee

Apparently poor Eric became Half a Bee after the singer had loved him "semi-carnally," which another in the troupe mishears and repeats as "Cyril Connolly", both as a question and sung line. Connolly was a literary and art critic who edited the magazine "Horizon" in the 1940s.

The song was composed by Eric Idle and John Cleese and concludes the Fish License sketch, where Mr Praline (Cleese) has named all his pet animals (including his halibut) "Eric". The sketch with this song is found on the troupe's third album 'Monty Python's Previous Record', released in 1972.

This question was Eric-ted by team member pusdoc; no bees were harmed in the creation of this query.

Answer: Cows

The game, released in 2011 by the Zed Group, is a "catapult-physics" style game that involves the flinging of cows in an attempt to dislodge a series of Englishmen hiding in various buildings. The construction of each building varies. Inspiration for the game was drawn from the "French Taunter" scene in the 1975 film. The scene shows Arthur and his knights being denied access to a castle held by the French. On making a final demand, the French respond by hurling a cow over the ramparts, which lands on one of the footmen. Arthur and the knights then try to storm the castle and are met with a series of animals being tossed at them. Arthur soon sounds a retreat by yelling "Run away. Run away".

This question was flung in by Phoenix Rising's pollucci19 who advises that no creatures were tossed in the creation of this question. They may have been milked for all they were worth, instructed on how to ride bicycles and told to report to the Ministry of Silly Walks on Tuesday morning, but they definitely were not tossed.

Answer: Harold

In this sketch from an episode of the first series of "Monty Python's Flying Circus", a shepherd (Graham Chapman) tries to explain to a bemused tourist (Terry Jones) why his flock of sheep are hopping across the field like birds, roosting in trees and encouraging each other to take to the air - a past-time that is vividly portrayed via off-screen sound effects as "baa, baa... thump". The shepherd places the blame squarely on a "dangerous", "clever" and "ambitious" ram named Harold who he believes to be hatching a plan for his flock to fly away from a life that solely entails "standin' around for a few months and then bein' eaten".

This question was slightly sheepishly supplied by Phoenix Rising team member Fifiona81.

Answer: To give the confection its crunch

The idea for this sketch came from Britain's 1968 Trade Descriptions Act. The sketch features a confectioner who is questioned by two officers from the Hygiene Squad about inadequate descriptions for his products. Among the confections the officers highlighted was the "Crunchy Frog", with which they took issue because the frogs used were not cooked and had the bones intact. To this the confectioner countered, "If we took the bones out, it wouldn't be crunchy, would it?"

This question was served bone-in by Phoenix Rising team member purelyqing.

Answer: Four Yorkshiremen

The skit parodies the stereotypical Yorkshireman who takes pride in his humble background and/or difficult childhood. Four Yorkshiremen, who later in their obviously successful lives reminisce and try to outdo each other by claiming the most implausible beginnings to their life which ultimately descends into absurdity. The skit was not a Monty Python skit (though they made it famous). It was originally written in 1967 by Tim Brooke-Taylor, John Cleese, Graham Chapman and Marty Feldman and performed on their "At Last the 1948 Show". In the "Monty Python" Live shows, the skit was performed by Graham Chapman or John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin (who was the only performer actually from Yorkshire).

This question was recalled by Phoenix Rising member 1nn1 who can still recite the skit word for word fifty years after he first heard it.

Answer: The Brontosaurus

First appearing in a TV sketch in Episode 31 of "Monty Python's Flying Circus", Anne Elk (John Cleese) is interviewed by Chris (Graham Chapman, and in later performances by Eric Idle) about her new theory. The humour of the sketch arises from the peculiar mannerisms of Anne Elk (that's Miss Anne Elk) and her complete inability to understand that Chris is asking her to explain her new theory about the brontosaurus. Eventually Chris manages to get Anne to explain her theory and it is stunning in its simplicity and mundanity! No spoilers here!

This question from Phoenix Rising member MikeMaster99, who sympathizes with the difficulties of portraying science in the media!

Answer: Coconut

In the skit, King Arthur's servant, Patsy, bangs together two halves of a coconut to simulate the clopping sound of a horse. When asked by castle guards where he got the coconut from, King Arthur suggested it may have been carried to England by migratory swallows. The scene ends with the castle guards debating how this could have happened.

This question was knocked together by Phoenix Rising team member purelyqing.

Answer: The Piranha Brothers

Doug and Dinsdale Piranha are East End London criminals, sons of Arthur Piranha, a television quizmaster and scrap metal merchant, who appeared on the "Ethel the Frog" sketch on the team's first episode of their second series (1970). They also appear on the group's second album, "Another Monty Python Record" (1971) in which it is stated that the brothers had just been sentenced to 400 years in prison along with the exaggeration that "rather than bombing Luton Airport, they napalmed Cheltenham instead". The Piranha's stock in trade was violence and intimidation but you could never (ever) fault their manners. My favourite section from this skit is as follows:

Interviewer: I've been told Dinsdale Piranha nailed your head to the floor.
Stig: No. Never. He was a smashing bloke. He used to buy his mother flowers and that. He was like a brother to me.
Interviewer: But the police have film of Dinsdale actually nailing your head to the floor.
Stig: [pause] Oh yeah, he did that.
Interviewer: Why?
Stig: Well he had to, didn't he? I mean there was nothing else he could do, to be fair. I had transgressed the unwritten law.

This question was stitched up, stuffed in a sock, fed a pasta dinner and then hung out to dry by Phoenix Rising's dancing bear, pollucci19.