Recap / Monty Pythons Flying Circus S 3 E 4

Title: Blood, Devastation, Death, War, and Horror

Original Airdate: 9/11/1972

First off is the talk show Blood, Devastation, Death, War, and Horror, with its special guest: a man who speaks in anagrams, until he pisses off.

And now, it's: a merchant banker learning about the concept of donations, two pantomime horses fighting for their job, other animals in life-or-death struggles, a cartoon about literal house hunters, an actor getting frustrated because he doesn't have any good lines in an army recruitment sketch and a bus sketch and a circus sketch, "The Man Who Makes People Laugh Uncontrollably", a man who can't start a discussion, a BBC One announcer having a rough time, and a pantomime horse who is also a spy.

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Tropes:

• Blessed with Suck: Mr. Horton, the man who makes people laugh, even when he's serious and miserable.
• Bond Gun Barrel: Parodied at the beginning of "The Pantomime Horse is a Secret Agent Film".
• Credits Gag: The credits are done entirely in anagrams as a reference to the first sketch.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: One sketch involved a man trying to get the head of a bank to donate a pound to Orphans, with the banker being utterly mystified at the concept of charity.
• Funny Background Event: Before "The Bols Story" sketch starts, a sign reading "Is the Queen Sane?" can be seen rising in the background.
• Groin Attack: The man from the "Army Recruitment" sketch is a victim of one, done by the RSM from the same sketch.
• Mood Dissonance: Invoked with The Man Who Makes People Laugh; the titular man gets fired from his job due to the effect he has on others, and launches into a lengthy sob story even as his boss is bursting with laughter.
• Mundane Made Awesome: "Neurotic Announcers" turns the act of announcing the nine o’clock news into one man’s heroic struggle with himself, backed up by his loving announcer wife Jo-jo and loyal announcer friend Dick. When Jack manages to pull it off, the ensuing joyful celebrations mean that we completely fail to hear the nine o’clock news.
• Never Trust a Title/Non-Indicative Name: The talk show Blood, Devastation, Death, War, and Horror is not as violent and gory as its title implies.
• Newscaster Cameo: Richard Baker, a real newscaster who would appear in two more episodes of the show.
• Noodle Implements:
  • After the first interruption of "The Bols Story", it cuts back to the host talking about some weird instructions.
  Host: ...with a large piece of wet paper. Turn the paper over... keeping your eye on the camel, and paste down the edge of the sailor's uniform, until the word 'Maudling' is almost totally obscured. Well that's one way of doing it.
  • Also, as Richard Baker goes through the news, an assortment of images are shown behind him including Richard Nixon, a pair of breasts, a scrubbing brush, a man with a stoat through his head, Margarate Thatcher, a toilet, a cork screw, and a pair of false teeth in a glass among other things. We never know what these images refer to as Baker's dialogue is drowned out...until....
  Richard Baker: Until the word 'Maudling' is almost totally obscured.
• Pantomime Animal: Two pantomime horses fight over a job at a merchant bank, a pantomime goose kills Terence Rattigan, and the recurring pantomime Princess Margaret.
  Biggles: Get back in the cupboard you pantomimetic royal person!
• Pie in the Face: The man from the "Army Recruitment" sketch gets hit in the face with a pie by the RSM from the same sketch.
• Sapient House: The house that eats people.
• Significant Anagram: The theme of the episode. The first sketch deals with a man who only talks in Anagrams (at least for a while) and the following sketches feature anagrams (and pantomime animals) in some regard.
• Spoonerism: In the first sketch, the man who speaks in anagrams mentions "Ring Kichard", which as the presenter points out, is a spoonerism, not an anagram.
• Stop Trick: When a man gets fed up with the "Mary... Army Recruitment" sketch, the RSM suggests a scene change; the man stays the same when the recruitment office spontaneously changes to a bus.
• Toilet Humor: After the house that eats people has a full belly, it goes into the forest and a flushing noise is heard.
• Trap Door: Used on a man collecting money for charity in the "Merchant Banker" sketch. Because the set had to be raised to accommodate the space beneath the trapdoor, it's audibly obvious that Cleese and Jones are walking on wooden boards rather than the concrete studio floor. This does however help in the later part of the scene, when the pantomime horses have to tap on the floor.
• TV Documentary: The initial pantomime horse sketch segues into a German-accented John Cleese narrating a typical nature documentary about life-or-death struggles, which quickly veers into (well-narrated) ridiculousness and culminates with a pantomime Princess Margaret ambushing a wild breakfast tray with a harpoon and subsequently kicking it into submission.
  Narrator: Ping! Right in the toast! Poor breakfast! A brief struggle, and all is over.
• The Unwitting Comedian: Mr. Horton from the "Man Who Makes People Laugh" sketch. Mr. Horton is an average, middle-aged man whose words cause those that hear them to burst out in hysterical laughter, even though everything he says isn't humorous in the slightest. This eventually gets him fired by his boss, who is desperately holding in hysterical laughter as he speaks with him, because his laughter inducement is considered obstructive by his fellow employees.
• The Voiceless: Richard Baker's cameo as the newsreader is mostly this (due to BBC announcers celebrating in voice-over throughout his news report), though he does get a couple words in at just the end.
• We Interrupt This Program: ...to annoy you, and to make things generally more irritating.
• Wildlife Commentary Spoof: "Here ve see a large pantomime horse engaged in a life or death struggle..."