Nudge Nudge

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Nudge nudge" is a sketch from the third Monty Python's Flying Circus episode, "How to Recognise Different Types of Trees From Quite a Long Way Away".

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Idle's character gets on the nerves of Jones' character.

It features Eric Idle (author of the sketch) and Terry Jones as two strangers who meet in a pub. Idle (playing a younger man) asks Jones (as an older gentlemen) several questions about his relationship with his wife, all bearing hidden sexual innuendo ("Does your wife 'go'?", "is she a sport?", "is she interested in photography?", "likes games, eh?", etc.), all followed with "Nudge nudge, wink wink, know what I mean, know what I mean, say no more, say no more! A nod's as good as a wink to a blind bat!" from which the older man is supposed to glean the sexual connotations of his questions. Eventually, the older man has had enough and demands that Idle be direct with him ("Are you insinuating something?" "No! No no no no no... yes."), so Idle asks him what it is like to sleep with a lady. ("You've, eh...slept...with a lady?" "Yes." "...What's it like?")

Spoilers end here.

The sketch also appears in the 1971 spinoff film, And Now For Something Completely Different and the 1981 concert film Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl. It was also performed when the Pythons appeared on "The Midnight Special."

The sketch was later adapted as a television advertisement for Breakaway chocolate biscuits ("suggestive...digestive...know what I mean?"). After doing several advertisements, Idle refused to make anymore. Fellow Python John Cleese made an advertisement for Breakaway, playing Idle's character's brother.

On the version of the original sketch as performed at Drury Lane, after the advertisement had become well-known, Idle adds the line "Ugh...Breakaway! Eurgh!" and gets a huge laugh.

[edit] History

The sketch was originally offered to The Two Ronnies to perform. However, they rejected it as it didn't contain a single punchline and they felt it was in poor taste.

[edit] In popular culture

In the Operation L.O.N.D.O.N. episode of Kids Next Door one of the foreign members only speaks in such terms, though as it's a children's show his are not dirty.
A clip of the sketch was shown on The Daily Show, during a report on the Mark Foley scandal.
Monty Python's Flying Circus was Elvis Presley's favourite TV show, and apparently Nudge Nudge was his favourite Python sketch.