best monty python sketch
 

I love so many of them... but my answer right now is "the funniest joke in the world".

either that or

"how to recognize trees from quite a long way away"

I don't know the name of this sketch, but it's the four old guys sitting around comparing how dreadful life was when they were younger. Each one would begin his tirade with the words, "Aye, you were lucky." And it ended with "I had to get up in the morning at 10 o'clock at night, half an hour before I went to bed. Eat a lump of dry poison. Work 29 hours a day down at the mill. And when we got home, our dads would kill us and dance about on our graves singing 'Hallelujah.'"

The Dead Parrot Sketch.

so many to choose from... nearly impossible... but i agree with Shokan... The Dead Parrot Sketch it is.

"what do do when someone attacks you with fruit"

well, when he comes at you with the rasberries....




....release the tiger

Cheese shop!

I like the really, long drawn out sketches that take up half of the show, so for me it's a toss-up between "Pirahna Brothers" (Spiny Norman!) and "Farming Club Presents the Life of Tchaikovsky".

the one i always loved was from "holy grail" when the prince is stuck in the castle and he's talking to his dad and the two guards. or, on the show, the one about "defending yourself from an assailant armed with a piece of fruit"

All pale in comparison to.....

The Spanish Inquisition!

I'm also quite fond of the Blackmail show skit that was hosted by Michael Palin.

I've always been a fan of the Ministry of Silly Walks...

hmm.... so many classics. and such an important question too. i am going to go with the Spam song skit.

i was NOT expecting someone would mention that sketch! :D

um, i dunno if i should post this, but...

Wenn ist das Nunstuck git und Slotermeyer?
Ja! Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt gersput!

I think it was titled "How Not to Hide" where they kept blowing people up that were hiding behind shrubbery.

The Lumberjack Song.

The penguin on the telly.

The guy that couldn't pronounce the letter 'C' (what a silly bunt!)

1) The Twit Race
2) Cannibals in the Royal Navy
3) The Arguement Session

The cannibal funeral home and the cannibals in the lifeboat. Love those zany cannibals!

I kind of liked "The Cycling Tour", especially the action packed escape scene.

I was just thinking... it's a very odd transition peice, but there is one where John Cleese is behind a desk repoting the news, very casually. Some people come by and load him in the truck, still he reports the news. They drive all down this major road in england, for like five minutes he just reports the news. Then, they unload and run him (desk, microphone etc) all down this pier and then, right after he finished the news report he (desk etc) gets shoved off the edge of the pier into the water... that's so frickin funny!

Argument Clinic
"Look, if i argue with you i have to take up a contrary position"
"But that's not just saying 'no it isn't'"
"Yes it is"
"No it isn't!"

Fish Liscence
"This is a dog liscence with the word 'dog' crossed out an cat written in in crayon"
"The man didn't have the right form"
"What man?"
"The man from the cat detector van"
"The looney detector van you mean"
"Look it's people like you wot cause unrest"

that and the spam sketch are the best sketchs.

I don't know that it has a name, but the one where the two guys are standing on the canal and will, in turn, dance towards each other and lightly slap one another with small fish. Ending with one guy bashing the other across the face with a large bass, knocking him into the canal.

My simple explanation does not do it justice.

Also, the "One thin mint" sketch in "The Meaning Of Life" is pretty good.

Troublebot: That would be "The Fish Slapping Dance"

If I were forced to choose at gunpoint, I'd say "What to do When Someone Attacks You With Fruit"

Man, I really should catch up on my Monty Python. I've only seen the movies so far... The Meaning of Life is still in my top-three of funniest movies ever.

Oh, I did see the fish slapping dance. Pretty fucking hilarious =)

Argument Clinic takes the cake, after long pondering. :)

"Life is a shoe box, that's luxury!" comes second. It isn't that laugh-hah-hably funny when you see it as some others, but I got an extra kick from some of my student friends and I having similar discussion (who has crappiest apartment or who sleeps least when we don't basically have a reason to complain).

The one with the hungarian and the tobaconist!!

"My Howercraft is full of eels!"

the lumberjack song.
and climbing the road
and the knights who say ni.

i cant choose one.

ps. graham chapmen when to my school (not when i was in it, but we had the same drama teacher. she told both of us we'd never go anywhere in acting.)