description Spam Overview
"Spam" is a comedy sketch from Monty Python's Flying Circus, first broadcast in 1970 as part of the show's second series. Written by Terry Jones and Michael Palin, the sketch is set in a café where nearly every item on the menu includes the canned pork product Spam, and a chorus of Vikings repeatedly chants the word until told to be quiet by the waitress. The sketch's escalating repetition of the word "Spam" directly inspired the use of the term to describe unsolicited bulk electronic messages, a usage that emerged in early internet culture during the 1980s and 1990s.
insights Ranking position
Spam ranks #9 of 556 in the Sketch ranking, behind Matt Foley: Van Down by the River, ahead of The Four Yorkshiremen.
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What happens in the Monty Python Spam sketch?
Set in a greasy spoon café, the sketch features a couple trying to order breakfast while the waitress constantly mentions Spam, with nearly every menu item including the canned meat. A group of Vikings at a nearby table begins chanting "Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam" increasingly loudly, eventually drowning out all conversation. The sketch escalates into absurd chaos as the word "Spam" is repeated over 100 times.
Who wrote and performed the Monty Python Spam sketch?
The sketch was written by Terry Jones and Michael Palin and first broadcast in 1970 as part of the second series of Monty Python's Flying Circus. The performers included Palin as the waiter, Graham Chapman as the customer, Terry Jones as the waitress, and Eric Idle, John Cleese, and others as the chanting Vikings. The café setting was a typical Monty Python trope of finding absurdity in mundane British life.
Is the word "spam" for junk email really connected to the Monty Python sketch?
Yes, the computing term "spam" for unsolicited bulk messages directly derives from the Monty Python sketch. Early internet users drew a parallel between the Vikings' drowning out of all other conversation with their repetitive chanting of "Spam" and the way junk email floods and overwhelms legitimate communication. The term became widespread in the early 1990s on Usenet and has been universally adopted.
What series and episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus featured the Spam sketch?
The Spam sketch appeared in the 25th episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus, during the show's second series, first broadcast on December 15, 1970. The episode, titled simply "Spam," was the final episode of the second series. This era of the show is generally considered among the creative peak of Monty Python's television output.
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