Vocational Guidance Counsellor

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Vocational Guidance Counsellor is a Monty Python sketch that first aired in 1969. Mr. Anchovy (Michael Palin) goes to the counsellor (John Cleese) seeking a career change. Cleese reveals that Anchovy had done an aptitude test, and that the results showed that the career Anchovy is most suited to is chartered accountancy. However, Anchovy already is a chartered accountant, a career he has done for the last twenty years, and complains that he finds the job dull. Cleese says that Anchovy is a very dull person, and has traits such as being easily dominated which make him 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, he misidentifies an anteater as a lion. He then comes up with the idea of working his way towards lion taming via banking. As he is ranting on about it, Cleese delivers a public service announcement about the dangers of chartered accountancy.

This sketch also appeared in And Now For Something Completely Different. In it Eric Idle appears as a fairy to grant Anchovy's wish of seeing his name in lights.