Annotated Word Association Sketch


One of my favourite (and perhaps the cleverest) Monty Python sketch is John Cleese's Word Association.

Below is a transcript of the sketch which I have annotated according to an initial analysis performed by my sister Jenni and I. There is an underlying talk being given and I have marked that up in bold. I have tried to group the phrases resulting from a word association on distinct lines and have repeated in parentheses where a word forms part of two overlapping word associations that aren't part of the main text or where a difference of spelling exists. (To recover the sketch, just ignore the parentheticals.)

Tonight's the night

I shall be talking

a-bout of flu

the subject of word

association football.

This is a techn-

-ique (eke) out a living

much used in the

practice makes perfect

of psychoanaly-

sister and brother

and one that has occu-

pied piper

the

majority rule

of my

attention squad by the right number one two three four (for)

the last five

years (here's) to the memory.

It is quite remark-

able baker charlie

how

much the miller's son

this so-

called while you were out

word associ-

ation (Asian) immigrants' problems

influences the

manner (manna) from heaven

in which we

(Wee), sleekit, cowrin, tim'rous beastie

(beasti)-al

(all-)American

speak (Speke), the famous explorer.

And the

really well that is surprising

partner in crime

is that a

lot (Lot) and his wife

of the

lions' feeding time

we may

be c d e eff-

ectively quite unaware of the

fact or fiction section of the Watford Public Library

that we are even doing

it is a far, far better thing that I do now

(now) then, now then, what's going on

(on)ward Christian

(Christian) Barnard the famous heart

(heart)y part of the lettuce

(let us) now praise famous men

(men)tal homes for loonies like me.

So (sew) on the button,

my con-

tention (tension) causing all the headaches,

is that unless we take into ac-

count of Monte Cristo

in our thin-

king George the Fifth

this phenomen-

on the other hand

we shall not be able satis-

Fact or Fiction section of the Watford Public Library again

-ily to under-

stand to attention when I'm talking to you and stop laughing,

about human nature, man's psychological

make-up some story the wife'll believe

and hence the very meaning of life it-

selfish bastard, I'll kick him in the balls

(Balls) Pond Road.

UPDATE (2005-01-10): Thanks to Tim Bulkeley for his suggestion for "now praise famous mental homes for loonies like me."

UPDATE (2005-01-10): At the suggestion of my other sister, Leonie, I did a Google search for sleekit and came up with a poem by Robert Burns that begins: "Wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim'rous beastie"

UPDATE (2005-01-20): Further refined "beastie all-American"

UPDATE (2005-01-25): Made Lot clearer and corrected "eke out a living". Added "here's to the memory" (thanks to Bill Keller) and "Much the Miller's Son" (thanks to Bill Keller and Jason Hildebrand)

UPDATE (2005-02-22): Corrected the last line to be a reference to Balls Pond Road in London (thanks to Matt Peirse and Graham Douglas)