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)