Terry Jones (in the back), Eric Idle, Graham Chapman and the vikings in the Monty Python sketch "Spam".

"Spam" is a popular Monty Python sketch, first televised in 1970. In the sketch, two customers are trying to order a breakfast from a menu that includes the processed meat product in almost every dish. The term spam (in electronic communication, and as of 2008, general slang) is derived from this sketch.^[1] Look up spam, SPAM in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Image File history File links MontySpam. ... Image File history File links MontySpam. ... Terence Graham Parry Jones (born in Colwyn Bay, Wales, on February 1, 1942) is a British comedian, screenwriter and actor, film director, childrens author, popular historian, political commentator and TV documentary host. ... Eric Idle (born March 29, 1943) is an English comedian, actor, author and composer of comedic songs. ... Dr. Graham Arthur Chapman (January 8, 1941 – October 4, 1989) was an English comedian, actor, writer, physician and one of the six members of the Monty Python comedy troupe. ... Monty Python, or The Pythons,[2][3] is the collective name of the creators of Monty Pythons Flying Circus, a British television comedy sketch show that first aired on the BBC on 5 October 1969. ... Monty Python, or The Pythons,[2][3] is the collective name of the creators of Monty Pythons Flying Circus, a British television comedy sketch show that first aired on the BBC on 5 October 1969. ... Sketch Show redirects here. ... Year 1970 (MCMLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday (link shows full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Breakfast is the first meal of the day, eaten in the morning. ... In a restaurant, a menu is the list of options for a diner to select. ... This article is about the canned meat product. ... This article is about electronic spam. ... 2008 (MMVIII) is the current year, a leap year that started on Tuesday of the Anno Domini (or common era), in accordance to the Gregorian calendar. ...

It features Terry Jones as The Waitress, Eric Idle as Mr. Bun and Graham Chapman as Mrs. Bun. The televised sketch also featured John Cleese as The Hungarian and Michael Palin as a historian, but this part was left out of audio recordings of the sketch. Terence Graham Parry Jones (born in Colwyn Bay, Wales, on February 1, 1942) is a British comedian, screenwriter and actor, film director, childrens author, popular historian, political commentator and TV documentary host. ... A waiter is a person who waits on tables, often at a restaurant. ... Eric Idle (born March 29, 1943) is an English comedian, actor, author and composer of comedic songs. ... Dr. Graham Arthur Chapman (January 8, 1941 – October 4, 1989) was an English comedian, actor, writer, physician and one of the six members of the Monty Python comedy troupe. ... Cleese redirects here. ... Michael Edward Palin, CBE (born 5 May 1943) is an English comedian, actor, writer and television presenter best known for being one of the members of the comedy group Monty Python and for his travel documentaries. ... For other uses, see Historian (disambiguation). ...

Sketch

Only three and a half minutes long, it builds up into a semi-argument between the waitress who has a menu limited to having Spam in just about everything ("Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, baked beans, Spam, Spam, Spam and Spam"), and Mrs Bun, who is the only one in the room who does not want it (she asks for an item with the Spam removed, despite there already being some items mentioned that do not actually include Spam).

At several points, a group of Vikings in the restaurant (referred to as the Green Midget Café in Bromley) interrupt conversation by loudly singing "Spam, lovely Spam, wonderful Spam." They are interrupted by the waitress several times, but they resume singing more and more loudly until the sketch cuts to an historian talking about the Vikings, "...and Spam selecting a Spam particular Spam item from the Spam menu, would Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam..." as the singing continues on and on... For other uses, see Viking (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Bromley (disambiguation). ...

It premiered on December 15, 1970 as the final sketch of the 25th show of Monty Python's Flying Circus, and the following end credits were changed so every member of the crew has either Spam or some other food item from the menu added to their names. (Spam Terry Jones, Michael Spam Palin, John Spam John Spam John Spam Cleese, Graham Spam Spam Spam Chapman, Eric Spam Egg and Chips Idle, Terry Spam Sausage Spam Egg Spam Gilliam, etc.) The sketch became immensely popular. The word Spam is uttered at least 132 times. is the 349th day of the year (350th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1970 (MCMLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday (link shows full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the television series. ... Terence Graham Parry Jones (born in Colwyn Bay, Wales, on February 1, 1942) is a British comedian, screenwriter and actor, film director, childrens author, popular historian, political commentator and TV documentary host. ... Michael Edward Palin, CBE (born 5 May 1943) is an English comedian, actor, writer and television presenter best known for being one of the members of the comedy group Monty Python and for his travel documentaries. ... Cleese redirects here. ... Dr. Graham Arthur Chapman (January 8, 1941 – October 4, 1989) was an English comedian, actor, writer, physician and one of the six members of the Monty Python comedy troupe. ... Eric Idle (born March 29, 1943) is an English comedian, actor, author and composer of comedic songs. ... Terrence Vance Gilliam (born November 22, 1940) is an American-born British filmmaker, animator, and member of the Monty Python comedy troupe. ...

This sketch has also been featured in several Monty Python videos including Parrot Sketch Not Included - 20 Years of Monty Python. Parrot Sketch Not Included - 20 Years of Python was a tribute special to the Monty Python comedy group in 1989. ...

The audio version of the sketch, since the Hungarian and historian are not featured, instead has the Vikings reaching an operatic climax. For other uses, see Opera (disambiguation). ...

Spam was one of the few meats excluded from the British food rationing that began in World War II and continued for a number of years after the war, and the British grew heartily tired of it, hence the sketch. // Preface At the beginning of World War II Britain imported 55 million tons of foodstuffs per year, including more than 50% of its meat, 70% of its cheese and sugar, nearly 80% of fruits and about 90% of cereals and fats. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000...

Menu

• Egg and bacon
• Egg, sausage and bacon
• Egg and spam
• Egg, bacon and spam
• Egg, bacon, sausage and spam
• Spam, bacon, sausage and spam
• Spam, egg, spam, spam, bacon and spam
• Spam, spam, spam, egg, and spam
• Spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, baked beans, spam, spam, spam and spam
• Lobster thermidor aux crevettes with a Mornay sauce garnished with truffle paté, brandy and with a fried egg on top and spam
• Spam, sausage, spam, spam, spam, bacon, spam, tomato and spam (this is only in the LP version's menu, but the TV version features the Hungarian trying to order a similar item)

Chicken egg (left) and quail eggs (right), the types of egg commonly used as food An egg is a body consisting of an ovum surrounded by layers of membranes and an outer casing of some type, which acts to nourish and protect a developing embryo. ... For other uses, see Bacon (disambiguation). ... This article is about the prepared meat. ... This article is about the canned meat product. ... Baked beans and scrambled egg on toast. ... Lobster Thermidor is a French dish consisting of a creamy, cheesy mixture of cooked lobster meat, egg yolks, and brandy or sherry, stuffed into a lobster shell, and optionally served with an oven-browned cheese crust. ... A Mornay sauce is a Béchamel sauce with shredded or grated cheese added. ... Garnish is a substance used primarily as an embellishment or decoration to a prepared food or drink item. ... Species Tuber melanosporum Tuber brumale Tuber aestivum Tuber uncinatum Tuber mesentericum Tuber magnatum Truffle describes a group of edible mycorrhizal (symbiotic relationship between fungus and plant) fungi (genus Tuber, class Ascomycetes, division Ascomycota). ... A pâté (also spelled paté) is a spreadable paste, usually made from meat although vegetarian variants exist, and often served with toast as a starter. ... For other uses, see Brandy (disambiguation). ... This article is about the food. ... For other uses, see Tomato (disambiguation). ...

Cultural references

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

• The phenomenon, some years later, of marketers drowning out discourse by flooding Usenet newsgroups and individuals' email with junk mail advertising messages was named spamming, recounting the repetitive and unwanted presence of Spam in the sketch. This phenomonon has been reported in court decisions handed down in lawsuits against spammers - see, for example, CompuServe Inc. v. Cyber Promotions, Inc., 962 F.Supp. 1015, n. 1 (S.D.Ohio 1997).
• The Hormel company, the makers of the meat product Spam, while never quite happy with the use of the word spam for junk email, have always seemed supportive of Monty Python and their sketch. Hormel issued a special tin of Spam for the Broadway premiere of Eric Idle's hit musical Spamalot. Also, the sketch is part of the company's Spam museum in Austin, MN, United States and is performed every day by local actors. The sketch has also been mentioned in Spam's on-can advertisements for the product's 70th anniversary in 2007, though the date of the Python sketch mentioned is incorrect (1971 when it should be 1970).
• In 2007 the Hormel company decided that such publicity was part of their corporate image, possibly for the better, and sponsored a game where their product is strongly associated with the Monty Python http://www.spamspamspamspam.co.uk even featuring a product with "Stinky French Garlic" as part of the promotion of SPAMalot, a musical based on Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
• Comedy rap act Sudden Death incorporated the Monty Python Spam chant (albeit sung by the band, not sampled from the sketch) into the chorus of their song Spam, though the song is about the junk-e-mail spam and not the lunchmeat Spam.
• The DVD release of the series contains a deliberate subtitling error. When the Hungarian tries to order food, his words are "My lower intestine is full of Spam, Egg, Spam, Bacon, Spam, Tomatoes, Spam." Yet the subtitles read "Your intestine is full of Sperm." This is a continuation of the "Dirty Hungarian Phrasebook" sketch, earlier in the episode. The subtitles are a continuation to an argument some Python fans have waged over whether the Hungarian is saying "Spam" (which would be logical) or "Sperm" (which is what it sounds like, and would tie in better with the Hungarian phrasebook's wording).
• The Python programming language prefers to use spam and eggs as metasyntactic variables, instead of the traditional foo and bar.
• Spam is mentioned in the Camelot scene of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, where the Knights of the Round Table sing that they "eat ham and jam and Spam a lot". Spamalot then became the name of the Monty Python musical based on the film.

Image File history File links Broom_icon. ... Usenet (USEr NETwork) is a global, decentralized, distributed Internet discussion system that evolved from a general purpose UUCP architecture of the same name. ... E-mail, or email, is short for electronic mail and is a method of composing, sending, and receiving messages over electronic communication systems. ... Categories: Stub | Direct marketing | Promotion and marketing communications | Marketing ... This article is about electronic spam. ... // The United States Reports, the official reporter of the Supreme Court of the United States Case citation is the system used in many countries to identify the decisions in past court cases, either in special series of books called reporters or law reports, or in a neutral form which will... For other uses, see Hormel (disambiguation). ... This article is about the canned meat product. ... For other uses of Broadway, see Broadway. ... Musical theater (or theatre) is a form of theatre combining music, songs, dance, and spoken dialogue. ... Monty Pythons Spamalot is a comedic musical lovingly ripped off from the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975). ... Austin is a city located in Mower County, Minnesota. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... Year 1971 (MCMLXXI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar) of the 1971 Gregorian calendar, known as the year of cyclohexanol. ... Year 1970 (MCMLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday (link shows full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... For other uses, see Hormel (disambiguation). ... Sudden Death is a comedy rap trio from Hardyston, New Jersey consisting of vocalists Tom Devo Spice Rockwell, Steve Piles Fernino, and Professor Pastronamy. ... A spermatozoon or spermatozoan ( spermatozoa), from the ancient Greek σπέρμα (seed) and (living being) and more commonly known as a sperm cell, is the haploid cell that is the male gamete. ... Dirty Hungarian Phrasebook is a Monty Python sketch that first aired in 1970. ... Python is a general-purpose, high-level programming language. ... A metasyntactic variable is a placeholder name, or an alias term, commonly used to denote the subject matter under discussion, or an arbitrary member of a class of things under discussion. ... Foo is a metasyntactic variable used heavily in computer science to represent concepts abstractly and can be used to represent any part of a complicated system or idea including the data, variables, functions, and commands just to name a few. ... Bar is a metasyntactic variable used heavily in computer science to represent concepts abstractly and can be used to represent any part of a complicated system or idea including the data, variables, functions, and commands just to name a few. ... Monty Python and the Holy Grail is a 1975 film written and performed by the comedy group Monty Python (Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin), and directed by Gilliam and Jones. ... Monty Pythons Spamalot is a comedic musical lovingly ripped off from the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975). ...

External links

• Monty Python (first archived 1998-05-07 at 15:31:43; last changed 2003-12-04 19:58:44; last archived 2006-03-01 23:24:45 with footer "©1994-2001"^[2]). The Infamous Monty Python Spam Skit!. detritus. Retrieved on 2007-01-21. (Full text and audio of the sketch)
• Monty Python (first archived 1999-03-02 06:24:28; last changed 2002-12-11 21:36:47; last archived 2006-05-17 08:09:11; from a BBC broadcast on 15 december 1970^[3]). (De Monty-Python-sketch). Richard Noteboom. Retrieved on 2007-01-21. (More complete script of the Spam sketch)
• Monty Python (Jan 2, 1975). Monty Python - Spam. Google. Retrieved on 2007-01-21. (Google Video of Spam sketch)
• Monty Python (2006-08-14). Monty_Pythons_Flying_Circus_--EP25_0212_SPAM--_The_ Spam_Sketch.avi (Episode 25 (Season 2, Number 12)). World Space. Retrieved on 2007-01-21. (Alternative Source for the above)
• Brad Templeton (Wed, 27 Apr 2005 23:17:27 GMT). Origin of the term "spam" to mean net abuse. Brad Templeton. Retrieved on 2007-01-21.
• Monty Python - Spam - color enhanced - Japenese subtitles. Retrieved on 2005-10-16. (YouTube with Japanese subtitles)

Monty Python, or The Pythons,[2][3] is the collective name of the creators of Monty Pythons Flying Circus, a British television comedy sketch show that first aired on the BBC on 5 October 1969. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... is the 21st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Monty Python, or The Pythons,[2][3] is the collective name of the creators of Monty Pythons Flying Circus, a British television comedy sketch show that first aired on the BBC on 5 October 1969. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... is the 21st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Monty Python, or The Pythons,[2][3] is the collective name of the creators of Monty Pythons Flying Circus, a British television comedy sketch show that first aired on the BBC on 5 October 1969. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... is the 21st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Monty Python, or The Pythons,[2][3] is the collective name of the creators of Monty Pythons Flying Circus, a British television comedy sketch show that first aired on the BBC on 5 October 1969. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 226th day of the year (227th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... is the 21st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Brad Templeton (born near Toronto in 1960), son of Charles Templeton and Sylvia Murphy, is a software engineer and entrepreneur. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... is the 21st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 289th day of the year (290th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

References

v • d • e Monty Python
Graham Chapman · John Cleese · Terry Gilliam · Eric Idle · Terry Jones · Michael Palin Douglas Adams · Connie Booth · Carol Cleveland · Neil Innes
TV series	Monty Python's Flying Circus · Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus · Monty Python's Personal Best
Films	Monty Python and the Holy Grail · Monty Python's Life of Brian · Monty Python's The Meaning of Life
Anthology films	And Now for Something Completely Different  · Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl
Specials	Parrot Sketch Not Included - 20 Years of Monty Python · Monty Python Live at Aspen · Python Night - 30 Years of Monty Python
Albums	Monty Python's Flying Circus · Another Monty Python Record · Monty Python's Previous Record · The Monty Python Matching Tie and Handkerchief · Monty Python Live at Drury Lane · The Album of the Soundtrack of the Trailer of the Film of Monty Python and the Holy Grail · Monty Python Live at City Center · The Monty Python Instant Record Collection · Monty Python's Life of Brian · Monty Python's Contractual Obligation Album · Monty Python's The Meaning of Life · The Final Rip Off · Monty Python Sings · The Ultimate Monty Python Rip Off · The Instant Monty Python CD Collection · The Hastily Cobbled Together for a Fast Buck Album · Monty Python's Spamalot - Original Broadway Cast
Stage productions	Spamalot · Not the Messiah (He's a Very Naughty Boy)