Title: Face the Press (or: Dinsdale)
Original Airdate: 15/9/1970
Guest starring: David Ballantyne, John Hughman, Stanley Mason, Daphne Davey
And now for something completely different, it's: a discussion between the Minister of Home Affairs in a lovely dress and a puddle of brown liquid, a housewife having bureaucratic trouble getting her gas cooker installed ("New Cooker Sketch"), a man confusing regular adverts for secret adverts for prostitutes, a man applying for a patent for his silly walk ("Ministry of Silly Walks"), and a lengthy exposé on the notorious Piranha Brothers ("Piranha Brothers").
Tropes:
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever/Rodents of Unusual Size: Spiny Norman, when he's revealed to be Real After All.
- Bait-and-Switch: John Cleese plays someone dressed up as a gangster's moll with a very convincing outfit and one of his better cross-dressing voices. In their final interview about Dinsdale...Cleese: Dinsdale was a gentleman. What's more, he knew how to treat a female impersonator.
- Black Comedy: The folks delivering the gas cooker finally figure out that the quickest way to cut through the red tape and get the lady her gas cooker is to gas her to death. The sketch ends as they're putting a methane tube in her mouth and telling her to breathe deeply.
- Brick Joke: The seemingly never-ending queue of gasmen from the "New Cooker Sketch" comes back a couple of times, finally being scattered at the end of the episode when it's announced the Piranha Brothers have escaped. The Silly Walk Minister also makes another appearance at the end.
- The Cloud Cuckoolander Was Right: The ending reveals that Dinsdale Piranha was being followed by a gigantic hedgehog.
- Comedy as a Weapon: The London Gangster Doug Piranha would use sarcasm, bathos, puns, and other techniques to terrify his enemies.
- Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon: The Piranha Brothers tended to nail peoples' heads to the floor, or a coffee table.
- Well, Dinsdale did, anyway. Doug used... sarcasm.
- Drag Queen: "Dinsdale was a gentleman. And what's more, he knew how to treat a female impersonator."
- The Dreaded: The Piranha Brothers were feared gangsters, but Doug Piranha took the cake. Even Dinsdale Piranha, a man who strapped people to tanks and nailed their heads to the floor, was frightened of him.Luigi Vercotti [terrified]: I've seen grown men pull their own heads off rather than see Doug.
- Either/Or Title: "Face the Press (or: Dinsdale)".
- Enfant Terrible: The Piranha Brothers were notorious even in their youth; here's a neighbor's description.Mrs. April Simnel: I remember Doug was very keen on boxing, 'til he learned to walk, then he took up putting the boot in the groin.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The Piranhas name their operation "The Operation" and their gang "The Gang."
- Extra! Extra! Read All About It!: The episode ends with a paperboy hawking his paper, saying "Read all about it! Piranha Brothers escaped!"
- Faux Horrific: While Dinsdale Piranha was feared for his violent behavior, his brother Doug was even more feared. His weapon of choice: sarcasm."He knew all the tricks - dramatic irony, metaphor, bathos, puns, parody, litotes and... satire. Grown men would pull their own heads off rather than see Doug."
- Gayngster: Dinsdale, being a Ronnie Kray parody (see No Celebrities Were Harmed).
- Government Agency of Fiction: The Ministry of Silly Walks.
- Leg Focus: Ministry of Silly Walks (possibly) unintentionally does a lot to emphasize John Cleese's long, slender, dextrous legs.
- London Gangster: The Piranha Brothers (a Shout-Out to the Real Life Kray twins). Not that anyone has anything bad to say about them.
(start at 05:05) - Ninja Prop: A character played by John Cleese in drag is interviewed about Dinsdale. Women being played by men is common enough on the show that the audience would just think of this as the case here... right up until he says "... and what's more, he knew how to treat a female impersonator."
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: The Piranha Brothers bear a striking resemblance to the Kray Twins, even down to Dinsdale's "warm interest" in "Boys' Clubs, Sailors' Homes, Choristers' Associations, Scouting Jamborees and of course the Household Cavalry". Their police nemesis Harry "Snapper" Organs resembles the Kray's nemesis, Detective Superintendent Leonard "Nipper" Read, in name only.
- Non Sequitur: The title of the programme discussing the Piranha Brothers is the strange name of "Ethel the Frog".
- Not-So-Imaginary Friend: Dinsdale Piranha thought he was being followed by a giant hedgehog, whom he referred to as "Spiny Norman"; at the end of the show, a giant hedgehog is lurking around London looking for Dinsdale.
- Public Secret Message: A man looking for sex goes through several normal-appearing advertisements thinking they are codewords and euphemisms for prostitutes. He eventually finds what he's looking for within a very obvious advertisement. And he still doesn't know what it is.
- Siblings in Crime: The Piranha Brothers, known for policies of protection money, nailing heads to floors, and sarcasm.
- Silly Walk: The whole point of the Ministry of Silly Walks sketch. Provides the page image.
- The Unreveal: An interviewer interviews the Piranha Brothers' headmaster, Anthony Viney about their childhood. Unfortunately, after he asks the first question, he doesn't move the microphone toward Viney's mouth, so we can't hear what he's saying. After he finishes talking, the interviewer moves the microphone to Viney's mouth and talks, unaware that no one can hear what he's asking him.
- Vast Bureaucracy: Demonstrated by the "New Cooker" sketch. Even though the cooker is delivered to the right place, a woman can't receive it due to the wrong name on the paperwork. It gets even more confusing from there.
- Dinsdale?
