Line #113 AudioPlay/MontyPythonsContractualObligationAlbum


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4	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/contractual.png]]
5	[[caption-width-right:350: I bet you they won't play this album on the radio!]]
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7	->''"This record has been skillfully crafted by British comedians using ancient wellworn, classical handtool jokes. It has been specially designed to sit at the back of your record collection amongst the old Music/FrankSinatra albums to be brought out and split up when you get divorced. Any complaints about the humorous quality of this album should be addressed to British Airways, Ingraham's Drive, Greenwich."''
8	-->--'''Creator/EricIdle''' during "Announcement"
9
10	''Monty Python's Contractual Obligation Album'' is the fourth and final studio album by English comedy troupe Creator/MontyPython. Released in 1980 through Creator/CharismaRecords in the UK and Creator/AristaRecords in the US, it is as full of sketches and songs as their other releases. Some material is old, but a lot of it is new, especially the songs "Sit On My Face", "I Like Chinese", "Never Be Rude To An Arab", "Finland" and "Decomposing Composers".
11
12	!! Tracklist:
13	[[AC:Side One]]
14	# "Sit On My Face" (0:44)
15	# "Announcement" (0:21)
16	# "Henry Kissinger" (0:48)
17	# "String" (2:19)
18	# "Never Be Rude To An Arab" (1:00)
19	# "I Like Chinese" (3:10)
20	# "Bishop" (2:33)
21	# "Medical Love Song" (2:09)
22	# "Farewell To John Denver" (0:15) [[note]] Replaced with an apology or removed on later releases [[/note]]
23	# "Finland" (2:18)
24	# "I'm So Worried" (3:18)
25	# "End Of Side 1: Announcement" (5:29) [[note]] Only on cassette [[/note]]
26
27	[[AC:Side Two]]
28	# "I Bet You They Won't Play This Song On The Radio" (0:54)
29	# "Martyrdom of St. Victor" (1:41)
30	# "Here Comes Another One" (1:58)
31	# "Bookshop" (4:22)
32	# "Do What John?" (0:34)
33	# "Rock Notes" (2:11)
34	# "Muddy Knees" (2:10)
35	# "Crocodile" (2:34)
36	# "Decomposing Composers" (2:43)
37	# "Bells" (2:22)
38	# "Traffic Lights" (1:55)
39	# "All Things Dull And Ugly" (1:28)
40	# "A Scottish Farewell" (0:23)
41
42	[[AC:2006 Bonus Tracks]]
43	# "Contractual Obligation – Terry Jones and Graham Chapman Promotional Interview"
44	# "Radio Ad Obligation Promo"
45	# "Medical Love Song" [Alternate Demo Version]
46	# "I'm So Worried" [Demo Version]
47
48	!!Personnel:
49	* Creator/GrahamChapman
50	* Creator/JohnCleese
51	* Creator/EricIdle
52	* Creator/TerryJones
53	* Creator/MichaelPalin
54	* The Fred Tomlinson Singers: vocal choirs
55	----
56	!! ''I like troping lights''
57	* ACappella: "Traffic Lights" is sung by Creator/TerryJones and a choir.
58	* AddedAlliterativeAppeal: {{Invoked\|Trope}} in "Bells"
59	--> '''Husband''': The principle's the same. Bleedin' C. of E.! The Mohammedans don't come 'round here wavin' bells at us! We don't get Buddhists playing bagpipes in our bathroom! Or Hindus harmonizing in the hall! The Shintoists don't come here shattering sheet glass in the shithouse, and shouting slogans-\
60	'''Wife''': All right, don't practice your alliteration on me.
61	* AlternateAlbumCover: The vinyl artwork features a version of the paper label of the record visible on the outer sleeve. In the UK, the Charisma label is visible (despite not matching the image above) while in the USA it's the Artista label. On CD, the label is edited out on some releases.
62	* AnimalMotifs: "Rock Notes" features a rock band who changed their name several times and nearly always something related to fish.
63	* AnimateInanimateObject: The church in "Bells" starts to walk.
64	* AntiLoveSong: "Sit On My Face" about sex and "Medical Love Song", in which the singer sings about all the STD's he caught from his lover.
65	* BilingualBonus: Certain lines in "I Like Chinese" are sung in Mandarin and translate to "I love Chinese people. How are you, how are you, how are you, goodbye."
66	* {{Bowdlerize}}:
67	** Creator/TerryJones announces a sketch was left out due to "legal advice", which is followed by a slight silence. This wasn't a joke by the way. The track there was originally titled "Farewell to Music/JohnDenver" and features the country singer (played by Creator/EricIdle) singing the first line of a parody of "Annie's Song" (You came on my pillow,), before being strangled. On legal advice the sketch was omitted. Later CD releases reinstated it, but when Denver himself died in a plane crash in 1997 the 2006 reissue reverted to Jones' apology.
68	** "I Bet You That They Won't Play This Song On The Radio" plays this for laughs, bleeping out so many words that the song becomes incomprehensible.
69	* BrokenAesop: {{Invoked\|Trope}} for comedy.
70	** "Never Be Rude To An Arab", in which the singer tells us to not use offensive racial language, only [[HypocriticalHumor to do it himself]] and being blown up as a result.
71	** "Martyrdom of St. Victor" in which St. Victor spends 16 days and 16 nights in the presence of a harem of women who fondle and stroke him until he cries out how "fantastic this is."
72	--->[[spoiler:''For fifteen days and nights did Victor withstand these maidens, but on the sixteenth day he cried out, saying: "This...is fantastic! Oh...this is terrific!" And the Lord did hear the cry of Victor. [[ComicallyMissingThePoint And verily came He down and slew the maidens. And caused their cottonwool bugs to blow away, and their Kleenex to be laid waste utterly]]. And Victor, in his anguish, cried out [[SophisticatedAsHell that the Lord was a rotten bastard]]. So the Lord sent an angel to comfort Victor for the weekend. And entered they together the jaccuzzi. Here endeth the lesson.'']]
73	* BuxomBeautyStandard: "Henry Kissinger"
74	-->But you got nicer legs than Hitler\
75	And bigger tits than Music/{{Cher}}
76	* CherubicChoir: "All Things Dull And Ugly" is sung by a children's choir, but instead of positive things it's all about CrapsackWorld stuff, making it a case of CreepyChildrenSinging.
77	* ContinuityNod: "All Things Dull And Ugly" is a parody of the Christian hymn "All Things Bright And Beautiful", a song that was sung before but straight during "The Bishop Sketch" from ''AudioPlay/TheMontyPythonMatchingTieAndHandkerchief''.
78	* CoversAlwaysLie: The "Bookshop" sketch is a comedy skit from ''Series/AtLastThe1948Show'' (1967-1968) and thus has nothing to do with Monty Python, other that Creator/JohnCleese originally performed it, albeit with Creator/MartyFeldman in the original series. Here Feldman's part is performed by Graham Chapman.
79	* CrapsackWorld:
80	** "I Like Chinese"
81	--->''The world today seems absolutely crackers''\
82	''With nuclear bombs to blow us all sky high''\
83	''There's fools and idiots sitting on the trigger.''\
84	''It's depressing and it's senseless''
85	** "All Things Dull And Ugly"
86	--->''All things sick and cancerous''\
87	''All evil great and small''\
88	''All things foul and dangerous''\
89	''The Lord God made them all.''
90	* DeadlineNews: During the "man being eaten by a crocodile event", the reporter stood too close to the crocodile pit and got eaten.
91	* DragonsUpTheYinYang: "Yin and Yang" is mentioned in "I Like Chinese" as one of the things that the singer likes about the people.
92	* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: Like the title boldly admits, it was indeed put together to complete a contract with Creator/CharismaRecords.
93	* FakeOutFadeOut: "I'm So Worried" does this twice. The second time around apparently was convincing enough for the background singers and orchestra, as they can be heard scrambling to get back to their places when Terry Jones starts singing again.
94	* GenreMashup:
95	** "Henry Kissinger" is a 1920s music hall style song.
96	** "Here Comes Another One" is performed with a classical orchestra and in a CountryMusic style. It returns being played with bagpipes during "A Scottish Farewell". [[spoiler: The singer is killed a few seconds in.]]
97	** "Decomposing Composers" has various {{Standard Snippet}}s from classical compositions.
98	** "All Things Dull And Ugly" is done in the style of a CherubicChoir.
99	* GodIsEvil: "All Things Dull And Ugly" implies this by noting that God created all the ills of the world.
100	* GriefSong: "Decomposing Composers", where Creator/MichaelPalin lists all the composers who are dead now.
101	* HollywoodAtheist: "Bells" features a (lapsed) atheist complaining about the church bells ringing.
102	* IHaveManyNames: "Rock Notes" features Creator/EricIdle reading how the band Dead Monkeys changed their name several times, being called- in chronological order: Dead Salmon, Trout, Fried Trout, Poached Trout In A White Wine Sauce, Herring, Red Herring, Dead Herring, Dead Loss, Heads Together, Dead Together, Dead Gear, Dead Donkeys, Lead Donkeys, Sole Meunière, Dead Sole, Rock Cod, Turbot, Haddock, White Bait, the Plaices, Fish, Bream, Mackerel, Salmon, Poached Salmon, Poached Salmon In A White Wine Sauce, Salmon Meunière and Helen Shapiro.[[note]]Sole meunière is a dish consisting of sole dredged in flour, fried in butter and served with a brown butter sauce made with parsley and lemon; Helen Shapiro was a British teen pop star in the 60s.[[/note]] Just as Idle is confident that they will be called Dead Monkeys forever, he is phoned with the question: what does he think of "Dead Duck"? Or "Lobster"?
103	* InnocentBigot:
104	** "I Like Chinese", a list of the most benign stereotypes about Chinese people.
105	--->''I like Chinese,''\
106	''I like Chinese,''\
107	''They only come up to your knees,''\
108	''Yet they're always friendly and they're ready to please.''
109	** "Never Be Rude To An Arab" has the singer pleading the listener to not be racist, only to use racial slurs in the song.
110	* IntercourseWithYou: "Sit On My Face" is all about enjoying oral sex.
111	* LettingTheAirOutOfTheBand: Happens to the bells of the titular sketch, after the church gets shot down.
112	* LimitedLyricsSong: "Traffic Lights", "Do What John" and "Here Comes Another One" are mostly the same lyrics over and over again.
113	* LocationSong: "Finland Song", a comedic song about the marvels of this country. When Palin went to the country in one of his travel shows he sang this song while kayaking.
114	* MinimalisticCoverArt: There is literally no cover, only a white LP sleeve with the following conversation scribbled in the left corner:
115	-->'''Creator/EricIdle''':Can [[Creator/TerryGilliam T.G.]] do a nice eye-catching cover to help it sell?\
116	'''Creator/TerryJones''': Not really worth it.
117	* NationalStereotypes:
118	** "I Like Chinese" describes the Chinese as numerous, wise, witty, cute, cuddly and ready to please. Idle says "they only come up to your knees" and associates them with UsefulNotes/{{Mao}}ism, UsefulNotes/{{Taoism}}, Literature/IChing, chess, Zen, ping pong, Yin and Yang and Creator/{{Confucius}}. He also mentions "their tiny little trees", which is a (deliberate) mistake as bonsai trees are Japanese, though penjing trees are Chinese so perhaps he meant those. Halfway the song an erhu starts playing to add more Chinese atmosphere.
119	** "A Scottish Farewell" is performed on bagpipes and sung with a Scottish accent.
120	* NeverSmileAtACrocodile: "Crocodile" is about an international contest for the sports event ''being eaten by a crocodile''.
121	* NewsParody: "Rock Notes" and "Crocodile" are fake news reports, where Creator/EricIdle plays the journalist.
122	* NotQuiteDead: "Rock Notes":
123	-->Splitting up again to get their heads together, they reformed a fortnight later as Heads Together, a tight little name which lasted them through a difficult period when their drummer was suspected of suffering from death. It turned out to be only a rumor.
124	* NWordPrivileges: Parodied in "Never Be Rude To An Arab". The singer, who does not have N-word privileges, recites lines such as "Never poke fun at a nigger". The song abruptly ends with him getting blown up as if by [[BoltOfDivineRetribution divine retribution]].
125	* OddNameOut: "Rock Notes" discusses the various names of the band Dead Monkeys all of which were related to fish and/or had some variant on "Dead" except the last one Helen Shapiro, which is a reference to a pop singer who was popular during the 1960s.
126	* OneWordTitle:
127	** "String"
128	** "Finland"
129	** "Bishop"
130	** "Bookshop"
131	** "Crocodile"
132	** "Bells"
133	* OverlyLongGag: A good chunk of the tracks revolve around this. "Traffic Lights" lampshades it.
134	-->I like traffic lights\
135	I like traffic lights\
136	I like traffic lights\
137	I-[[ScrewThisImOuttaHere oh, god...]]
138	* TheParody:
139	** "Sit On My Face" is a melodical parody of "Sing As We Go" by English music hall singer Gracie Fields. It actually got the group under threat of legal persecution because of copyright infringement.
140	** "Martyrdom of St. Victor" is a parody of a Christian sermon.
141	** "All Things Dull And Ugly" is a parody of an Anglican choir song called "All Things Bright And Beautiful".
142	** "Muddy Knees" is a parody of "Ol' Man River" by Creator/PaulRobeson.
143	* PunBasedTitle: "Decomposing Composers".
144	* QuestioningTitle: "Do What John?"
145	* RealLifeWritesThePlot: The album actually was made to satisfy a recording contract.
146	* ReferenceOverdosed:
147	** "Decomposing Composers" summarizes various well known European 18th and 19th century composers.
148	** "Medical Love Song" lists various [=STDs=], using medical terminology provided by Graham Chapman who was a qualified doctor.
149	* RoyalHarem: "Martyrdom Of St. Victor" has Saint Victor spent 16 days and nights with "maidens of the Orient".
150	* RunningGagged: "A Scottish Farewell" [[spoiler:It's actually "Here Comes Another One" but with bagpipes and the singer is violently killed a few seconds in.]]
151	* SelfTitledAlbum: The group is mentioned in the title.
152	* ShoutOut:
153	** "Henry Kissinger" provides a shout-out to UsefulNotes/HenryKissinger.
154	** In "Bishop", when one of the sound engineers asks why they couldn't get the bishop of Bath and Wells to record their beer commercial, he's told that "he's doing frozen peas for Nigel", a reference to the legendary recording of Creator/OrsonWelles's [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frozen_Peas failed attempt at providing narration for a Findus frozen peas commercial]].
155	** During "String" Cleese wants to make an advertisement for string and envisions an Greek Orthodox bishop standing next to a nude woman in a bath.
156	--->How about Makarios? No, no he's dead. Never mind, we'll get his brother it'll be cheaper.[[note]] Makarios was arch bishop of Cyprus between the 1950s and 1970s.[[/note]]
157	** "Book Shop" mentions authors like Creator/CharlesDickens, ''Literature/{{Biggles}}'' and "The Gospel According To Charley Drake". Charley Drake was a British comedian.
158	** "Decomposing Composers" informs us the following composers have passed away: Music/LudwigVanBeethoven, Music/WolfgangAmadeusMozart, Music/JohannesBrahms, Music/FranzLiszt, Music/EdwardElgar, Music/FranzSchubert, Music/FryderykChopin, Music/GeorgeFredericHandel, Music/JosephHaydn, Music/SergeiRachmaninoff, Music/GiuseppeVerdi, Music/RichardWagner, Music/ClaudeDebussy, Christoph Willibald Gluck, Carl Maria von Weber, Giacomo Meyerbeer, Music/ModestMussorgsky and Johann Nepomuk Hummel.
159	** The band Music/ToadTheWetSprocket was named after a sketch, "Rock Notes", on this album where Creator/EricIdle mentions a fictional band with that name. In Idle's own words, "I was trying to think of a name that would be so silly nobody would ever use it, or dream it could ever be used." Apparently it was ''just silly enough'' that someone thought it would be hilarious to use it anyway. His reaction to hearing a real DJ announce the name for the first time? "I nearly drove off the freeway."
160	* TheSomethingSong: "Finland" (sometimes called "The Finland Song") and "Medical Love Song".
161	* SoundEffectBleep: Liberally and creatively used in "I Bet You They Won't Play This Song on the Radio".
162	* StandardSnippet: "Decomposing Composers" quotes from Johann Pachelbel's Canon in D, Music/LudwigVanBeethoven's opening bars from the Fifth Symphony, Music/JohannSebastianBach's Brandenburg Concertos, Music/PyotrIlyichTchaikovsky's ''Theatre/SwanLake'', and the rondo from Music/WolfgangAmadeusMozart's Horn Concerto No. 4.
163	* STDImmunity: Averted in "Medical Love Song", in which Chapman lists several sexually transmitted diseases contracted by his loved one.
164	* StuffBlowingUp:
165	** The accidental racist in "Never Be Rude To An Arab" is blown up near the end of the song.
166	** The church in "Bells" is shot down with a missile.
167	* SubvertedRhymeEveryOccasion: Near the end of "Traffic Lights", Terry Jones sings the line "Although my name's not Bamber", obviously setting up the rhyme for "amber" (as green and red lights were mentioned in the previous verses), [[spoiler:but eventually gives up before getting to it]].
168	* SwallowedWhole: In "Crocodile", news reporter Brian Goebbels is swallowed alive by a crocodile.
169	* TakeThat: In "Farewell to John Denver", Denver sings the opening line of a parody of "Annie's Song" and then gets strangled.
170	* TimeMarchesOn: Harold Duke in "Crocodile" is said to have "trained every British team since 1928."
171	* UnsatisfiableCustomer: The customer in the bookshop sketch asks for several books with titles similar to ones by Creator/CharlesDickens, refuses to buy ''Olsen's Standard Book of British Birds'' unless the gannet is removed (and then refuses to buy it because there's a page missing), and eventually reveals after he finds a book he does want that [[spoiler:he has no money and can't read]].
172	* WarIsHell: The {{spoken word\|InMusic}} intro to "I Like Chinese" talks about how crazy the world has gotten and mentions the possibility of nuclear warfare.
173	* WorryingForTheWrongReason: "I'm So Worried", in which the singer (Creator/TerryJones) is worried about just about anything, including the Middle East, baggage retrieval system at Heathrow airport, fashions, TV shows, his hair falling out, the state of the world, being full of self doubt, modern technology, things dumped in the sea, everything that can go wrong, whether people like this song and the next verse and whether he should have stopped the song or just carried on?

Context AudioPlay / MontyPythonsContractualObligationAlbum