Pantomime horse
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A pantomime horse (there are also pantomime cows and other animals) is a theatrical representation of a horse or other ungulate by two actors in a single costume who cooperate and synchronize their movements. One actor plays the front end, including the horse's head and its front legs, in a more-or-less upright posture and with a reasonable field of view afforded by eyeholes in the horse's head. The other actor, playing the rear end of the animal, must bend at the waist so that his torso is horizontal like that of a horse, and put his arms around the waist of the first actor. He can see little, although there are normally eyeholes in the bottom part of the horse's torso to enable him to see where he is putting his feet and to enable him to breathe. Pantomime cows also usually have comically prominent udders.
Pantomime horses and pantomime cows feature in Christmas pantomimes, mainly in the UK. A skilled pair of performers can dance as a pantomime horse. Radish the Pantomime Horse, based in Australia, is believed to be the world's only line-dancing Pantomime Horse. He performs regularly at festivals, arts centres and schools with other members of the musical performance group Ticklish Allsorts.
Pantomime horses feature prominently in an episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus titled Blood, Devastation, Death, War and Horror. In the Merchant Banker sketch, two pantomime horses are forced to fight to the death for their job. Another sketch features a pantomime horse as a James-Bond-esque secret agent, chasing its enemy around the world in cars, rickshaws, and even riding actual horses. The episode also features a pantomime goose and a pantomime Princess Margaret, which later appeared in the video for the George Harrison song, Crackerbox Palace. In the 1984 comedy, Top Secret!, a real bull attempts to reproduce with a pantomime cow with devastating consequences for actor inhabiting the rear of the two-piece costume.
