Vocational Guidance Counsellor performer Monty Python
Vocational Guidance Counsellor is a Monty Python sketch that first aired on December 21, 1969, in the episode "Episode 10".The sketch is credited with creating the popular stereotype of accountants being boring. Four decades on, the Financial Times reported that it still haunts the profession.Plot
Herbert Anchovy (Michael Palin) goes to the counsellor (John Cleese) seeking a career change. The counsellor reveals that Anchovy had done an aptitude test, and that the results showed that the career Anchovy is most suited to is chartered accountancy. Anchovy protests that he already is a chartered accountant, and complains that he finds the job dull. The counsellor says that, according to the aptitude test, Anchovy is an extremely dull person; while that would be a drawback in other professions, the counsellor says, it makes him even more suitable for accountancy. Anchovy reveals that his dream is to be a lion tamer, saying that his qualifications for the job are having seen them at the zoo, and having his own lion taming hat. However, it turns out that he has misidentified an anteater as a lion. The counsellor disabuses Anchovy by telling him how fierce lions really are, and shows him a picture of one, which frightens him. Anchovy then comes up with the idea of working his way towards lion taming via banking, but soon reveals that he lacks the courage even for that. As he rambles on, the counsellor delivers a public service announcement about the dangers of chartered accountancy.