Sam Peckinpah's "Salad Days" is a Monty Python's Flying Circus episode from season 3 (episode 33). List of all 45 episodes from the television series Monty Pythons Flying Circus: // (aired October 5, 1969; recorded September 7, 1969) Its Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Italian Lesson Whizzo Butter Its the Arts Arthur Two Sheds Jackson Picasso/Cycling Race The Funniest Joke in the World Trivia The...

In a fine example of the Python team's fondness of the 'double spoof', this third series sketch targets both the genteel stage musical Salad Days and the work of the controversial American film director Sam Peckinpah. This article discusses the series itself. ... Salad Days is a romantic Shounen Manga created by Shinobu Inokuma, which is a collection of romance stories occuring in a High School/college setting Salad Days is different as compared to other mainstream manga which usually have plotlines relating to super heroes/super heroines, adventures or in contrary, mushy... David Samuel Sam Peckinpah (February 21, 1925 – December 28, 1984) was an American film director. ...

Plot

After a preamble by Eric Idle (impersonating the British film critic Philip Jenkinson), who praises Peckinpah's predilection for "violence in its starkest form" (while constantly sniffling, despite persistent pleas from the onscreen captions to stop), we are treated to a clip from Peckinpah's latest project, an adaptation of the aforementioned musical. Eric Idle (born March 29, 1943) is an English comedian, actor, author and writer of comedic songs. ...

Well-dressed, well-spoken, upper-class youngsters frolic in an idyllic garden around an upright piano, responding enthusiastically to Michael Palin's suggestion of a game of tennis. Things go awry when Palin is struck in the face by the ball, causing blood to seep through his fingers. He reflexively flings his racquet out of shot; we then see that it has become embedded in the stomach of a pretty girl (Carol Cleveland), who faints, tearing Eric Idle's arm off in the process. Idle staggers across to the piano and slams down the lid, severing both of the pianist (John Cleese)'s hands. The piano then collapses in slow motion, crushing a screaming woman to death. Somehow Graham Chapman gets impaled by the piano keyboard, which slices off a woman's head when he turns around. The sketch then cuts back to the studio, prompting Idle to remark "pretty strong meat there from Sam Peckinpah", before he is gunned down in slow motion, with much spurting blood (and the caption "Tee Hee"). The end credits roll over his dying agonies, before a serious-sounding Cleese reads an apology to everyone in the entire world, which is then denied by a frivolous-sounding Idle. Michael Edward Palin, CBE (born May 5, 1943) is an English comedian, actor and television presenter best known for being one of the members of the comedy group Monty Python and for his travel documentaries. ... Carols first Python appearance. ... John Marwood Cleese (born 27 October 1939) is an English comedian and actor best known for being one of the members of the comedy group Monty Python, and for co-writing the sitcom Fawlty Towers in which he played Basil Fawlty. ... Graham Chapman (8 January 1941–4 October 1989) was an English comedian, actor, writer and physician. ...

This is followed by a deliberately tranquil final scene of waves crashing against a shore. Cleese briefly walks into shot in a Roundhead costume, explaining that the scene was added to fill in time and apologising for the lack of any more jokes. The Roundheads was the nickname given to supporters of the Parliamentarian cause in the English Civil War. ...

Robert Hewison's book, Monty Python - The Case Against, contains extracts from a BBC viewer's panel's response to the show, and naturally there were complaints that this particular sketch was "over the top", "horrific", and "sick". Robert Hewison (born 1943) is a British academic and author. ...

External link

• Sam Peckinpah's "Salad Days" script
• Sam Peckinpah's "Salad Days" without the intro or outro by Eric Idle