Monty Python's Flying Circus/Whither Canada?

Whither Canada?
Season 1, Episode 1
Airdate	October 5, 1969
Production Number	53346
Written by	Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin
Directed by	Ian McNaughton
— N/A	1x02 → Sex and Violence
Monty Python's Flying Circus — Season One

Whither Canada? is the first episode of the first season of Monty Python's Flying Circus.

Also Appearing: Carol Cleveland, Terry Gilliam (Nazi Soldier)

Episode Breakdown

• It's Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Cleese) takes a look at some famous deaths, starting with Genghis Khan. They cut to video of Khan (?) marching back and forth at his tent before slipping and falling. The judges give his death a 9.1, 9.7 and 9.3, a total of 28.1 which places him sixth below Abraham Lincoln, as indicated by Eddie (Idle). As part of a special request, Mozart shows the death of Mr. Charles Foster (Chapman), who shouts "Strewth!" and collapses. To close the show, Mozart shows one of the "evergreen bucket kickers," English Admiral Nelson, who was thrown off a building.
• Italian Lesson: A professor (Jones) teaches a class on Italian, but all of the students are Italian themselves. Unaware to this, the professor starts to teach Giuseppe (Palin) and Mario (Cleese) basic phrases. After a while, another student, Francesco (Idle), breaks in with a question in Italian, but the professor doesn't understand at all. Giuseppe begins to translate, but is interrupted by a man wearing lederhosen named Helmut (Chapman), who is in the wrong class—he meant to be in the German class. Indignant, the non-English speaking student gets into an argument with Mario to say that his city is better than Naples while another student with a guitar starts playing inexplicably.
• Wizzo Butter: One of the flying pigs wanders off and is eaten by a man with a mustache, but he himself has his head removed and cracked on the side of a large bowl like an egg. The contents of his head produce "Whizzo Butter," which is advertised as being indistinguishable to dead crab. To prove this an announcer (Palin) does a "man on the street" interview with several housewives (Chapman, Cleese and Jones) who threaten him if he tries to make them look foolish on television.
• It's the Arts: Linkman (Palin) introduces a television program called It's the Arts, moderated by an interviewer named Tom (Cleese) talking to Sir Edward Ross (Chapman), a British filmmaker. The interviewer fumbles with whether or not he can call Sir Edward, "Edward" or "Ed" and wastes much of the interview time, especially when he starts calling Ross "Eddie-baby," "Frank" and "Sugar Plum." Ross leaves the stage, but is brought back when Tom asks a real question about his latest film. Midway into his answer, Tom tells him to shut up and they cut back to Linkman.
• Arthur "Two-Sheds" Jackson: A new interviewer (Idle) talks with Arthur "Two-Sheds" Jackson (Jones), who recently debuted a new symphony. However, the interviewer gets hung up on his nickname. Jackson explains that the nickname was spurred from when he was considering purchasing a second shed, although he never did the nickname stuck. The interviewer suggests that he buy another shed after all to be in line with his epithet and keeps asking questions about the sheds. The interviewer starts to ask questions about the music, but Jackson still isn't happy about the shed being shown on the screen behind him and about the interviewer talking about train-spotting instead of his music. Tom (Cleese) appears again to throw Jackson off stage again.
• Picasso/Cycling Race: The main event of the arts program is Pablo Picasso riding a bicycle and painting at the same time. Linkman throws to Raymond Baxter (Palin) standing in front of a map, who charts Picasso's route on the A-272. He then throws to Vicky (Idle), who gives a rundown of the bicycle he is using for this trek. Reg Moss (Idle) in the field has yet to see Picasso, but he has an interview with Ron Geppo (Chapman), who is a cycling champion and in full bicyclist uniform. Geppo says that Picasso will be alright as long as he doesn't try to paint something on the scale of Guernica. Moving over to Sam Trench (Cleese), on another section of the route, who has caught sight of Picasso and his abstract painting... Except it isn't Picasso at all. A woman (Palin) says that's Wassily Kandinsky, who's followed by a slew of other painters who have apparently started an impromptu painters cycling race. After all of these painters go by, Toulouse-Lautrec slowly pedals by on a child's tricycle. With no sight of Picasso, the anchor explains that Picasso has fallen off his bicycle while taking a shortcut, effectively ruining his chance at international cycling fame.
• Sit Up!: Several Victorian era photographs are animated, including two mothers demanding that their sons sit up straight, a woman and a man hiding in her giant dress and a military man with someone trapped inside him who attempts to escape by cutting open his skull, a man who strips the dress off a woman and puts on a mask before putting it back on when a police officer appears, a head that nearly flies off using its odd hair cut and of course the usual spontaneous dancing. The final photograph is crushed by a giant pig.
• The Funniest Joke in the World: Ernest Scribbler has written the funniest joke in the world. The joke is so funny, however, that he laughs himself to death. Scribbler's mother (Idle) comes in and reads the joke after discovering her son's body and also succumbs to its power. A reporter (Jones) witnesses an inspector (Chapman) attempting to retrieve the joke with the aid of somber music and the chanting of laments. Of course, this isn't enough and he stumbles out, laughing intensely. The joke is then put into employ by the ministry of war, who suffers massive casualties from people reading it. They then go to work on a German version of the joke, working on one word each for safety reasons. They told the German joke in 1944, which was a massive success. Hitler attempted to duplicate the joke, but his attempts were a failure. A German official (Cleese) captures a soldier from the field (Palin) and resorts to tickling him with a feather. Eventually, the soldier gives up the joke, killing both the official, Otto the Gestapo Officer and another soldier. The Nazis went to work on creating their own joke, which fails miserably when broadcast to the British. After the war, the joke was laid to rest and joke warfare was banned outright by the Geneva Convention.

Notes

"It's..."

• Michael Palin as a haggard looking man struggling to get out of a bay and onto the beach.

Trivia

The Show

• The Funniest Joke in the World: The joke in the final sketch is written in German as "Venn ist das nurnstuck git und Slotermeyer? Ya! Beigerhund das oder die Flipperwaldt gersput!" This is mostly nonsense which translates somewhat into "When is the nowpiece 'git' and 'Slotermeyer'? Yes! 'Beier'dog the or the 'Flipper'forest 'gersput'."