The Ministry of Silly Walks
"The Ministry of Silly Walks" is a sketch from the Monty Python comedy troupe's television show "Monty Python's Flying Circus", series 2, episode 1, which is entitled "Face the Press". The episode first aired on 15 September 1970. A shortened version of the sketch was performed for "Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl". A satire on bureaucratic inefficiency, the sketch involves John Cleese as a bowler-hatted civil servant in a fictitious British government ministry responsible for developing silly walks through grants. Cleese, throughout the sketch, walks in a variety of silly  ways. It is these various silly walks, more than the dialogue, that have earned the sketch its popularity. Cleese has cited the physical comedy of Max Wall, probably in character as Professor Wallofski, as important to its conception. Ben Beaumont-Thomas in "The Guardian" writes, "Cleese is utterly deadpan as he takes the stereotypical bowler-hatted political drone and ruthlessly skewers him. All the self-importance, bureaucratic inefficiency and laughable circuitousness of Whitehall is summed up in one balletic extension of his slender leg." Sketch. The sketch as originally depicted in the series begins with John Cleese playing Mr. Teabag , a civil servant who, after purchasing "The Times" from the newsagent in the previous sketch, walks through the streets of London (at the crossing of Thorpebank Road and Dunraven Road) in a very peculiar manner. He eventually arrives at his place of business: The Ministry of Silly Walks, on the northern end of Whitehall. In the hallway, he passes other employees all exhibiting their own silly walks before arriving at his office (the Hollywood Bowl performance omits this preamble). Once there, he finds Mr Putey (Michael Palin) waiting for him and apologizes for the delay, explaining that his walk has  become particularly silly of late and it takes longer for him to reach his destination. Putey explains that he has a silly walk he wishes to develop with grant money. He demonstrates his walk which, to Teabag, isn't particularly silly ("The right leg isn't silly at all, and the left leg merely does a forward aerial half-turn every alternate step."). He tells Putey that he does not believe the ministry can help him, as Putey's walk is not silly enough and funding is short. The government, he explains (whilst walking around his office in increasingly silly  ways), is supposed to give equally to Defence, Social Security, Health, Housing, Education, and Silly Walks, but recently spent less on Silly Walks than on national defence. After a visit by his secretary Mrs. Two-Lumps, Mr. Teabag shows Mr Putey a film on silly walks. (The segment is a parody of early 20th-century cinema, with Michael Palin dressed up as Little Tich; this film is also shown as part of the Hollywood Bowl performance of the sketch.) After tossing the projector offstage, Teabag offers Putey a grant that will allow him to work on the Anglo-French Silly  Walk, "La Marche Futile" (a parody of Concorde's Anglo-French development), which is then demonstrated by a man (Terry Jones) dressed in a mixture of stereotypical English and French outfits, with a sped-up version of "La Marseillaise" playing. Mrs. Two-Lumps, presumably the minister's secretary, makes a brief appearance, bringing in coffee with full silly walk. As she enters, the cups fall all over the tray, completely spilling their contents. The minister looks at the tray, says "Thank you, lovely" and she exits again, taking the tray with her, complete with upended cups. In the Hollywood Bowl  version, Carol Cleveland plays Mrs. Two-Lumps, and spills some of the coffee on Cleese during the sketch. As the years went by amid repeated requests to do the sketch, Cleese found it increasingly difficult to perform these walks. He would say, when told about a new Python tour, "I'm not doing silly walks." Accordingly, the sketch was not performed during "Monty Python Live (Mostly)", the troupe's 2014 reunion show. It was replaced by "The Silly Walks Song", which was performed by a group of (younger) dancers who mimicked Cleese's original walks while wearing bowler hats and  carrying briefcases. Reception. In 2005, the sketch was chosen in a poll taken by Channel 4 in Britain as the 15th greatest comedy sketch of all time (and one of five Monty Python sketches in the top 50). Mobile game. In 2014, an official video game adaption of the sketch was released for Android and iOS. It features Cleese, as the minister of silly walks, leaving his office and walking through London. It takes the form of an endless runner game, except with an appropriately absurd walking animation. The game includes voice acting from John Cleese. COVID-19 pandemic. Unofficial signs  stating that certain sidewalks are under the jurisdiction of The Ministry of Silly Walks have been placed along sidewalks worldwide, including the United States, Canada, and England as a way to allow pedestrians to laugh in a stressful time. In April 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, a family in Yorkshire street in Metro Detroit put up signs, which designated the sidewalk in front of their house as "The Jurisdiction of The Ministry of Silly Walks" and encouraged people to do a silly walk. Silly walks were recorded via their doorbell cam, and posted to the Instagram account yorkshire.silly.walks. Inspired by  the signs in Yorkshire, on 8 May 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic in British Columbia, a resident of North Vancouver placed signs along Jones Avenue which stated, "You have now entered the jurisdiction of Ministry of Silly Walks. Commence silly walking immediately." The resident, a Monty Python fan, stated, “It's just a stretch of 50 feet where you can just kind of be silly and let loose. I think we’re all under quite a bit more stress these days and just to have a split second or a moment to have a chuckle, I think could turn some  people’s day around.” The signs were not popular among the entire community and removed by municipal workers on 15 May 2020, but replaced shortly after. Videos of residents walking silly are posted to the Instagram account jonesave.sillywalks. Also inspired by Yorkshire, a resident in Needham, Massachusetts placed signs along the sidewalk to establish the Needham Ministry of Silly Walks. Videos are posted to the Instagram account needhamministryofsillywalks.