How to Irritate People
| How to Irritate People | |
|---|---|
 DVD cover | |
| Directed by | Ian Fordyce |
| Produced by | David Frost |
| Written by |
Tim Brooke-Taylor Graham Chapman John Cleese Marty Feldman |
| Starring |
John Cleese Tim Brooke-Taylor Graham Chapman Michael Palin Gillian Lind Connie Booth Dick Vosburgh |
Release date | 1968 |
Running time | 68 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
How to Irritate People is a 1968 television broadcast written by John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Marty Feldman and Tim Brooke-Taylor. Cleese, Chapman, and Brooke-Taylor also feature in it, along with future Monty Python collaborators Michael Palin and Connie Booth.
In various sketches, Cleese demonstrates exactly what the title suggests—how to irritate people, although this is done in a much more conventional way than the absurdity of similar Monty Python sketches.
Notable sketches
Job Interview
The "Job Interview" sketch, starring Cleese as the interviewer and Brooke-Taylor as the interviewee, was later performed, almost unchanged, in the first season of Monty Python's Flying Circus with Chapman as the interviewee. The "pepperpots" also recurred in many Monty Python sketches, and the "Freedom of Speech" segment was lifted from At Last the 1948 Show.
Egocentrism
The "Egocentrism" sketch, starring Cleese as the host/interviewer and Chapman as interviewee Dr. Rhomboid Goatcabin, features a discussion about freedom of speech in Great Britain, in which Cleese's character repeatedly reformulates the subject's main question ("Do you believe there is freedom of speech in this country?") in so many ways as to start a monologue and not let Chapman's character speak. This increasingly annoys the interviewee to the point where he is forced to murder the host in order to express his opinion on the matter, only to be interrupted again by his spirit. This sketch bears some resemblance to Anne Elk's Theory on Brontosauruses.
Car Salesman
The "Car Salesman" sketch, in which Palin refuses to accept customer Chapman's claim that a car he sold is faulty, later inspired Python's Dead Parrot sketch in which the malfunctioning car is replaced by an expired parrot.
Quiz Show
The "Quiz Show" sketch, where Brooke-Taylor, as a Pepperpot, annoys Cleese, a quiz show host, while appearing as a contestant on a show, was later adapted into another Monty Python's Flying Circus sketch, "Take Your Pick" in episode 20, where Terry Jones plays the contestant attempting to win the prize of a "blow on the head."
Airline Pilots
The "Airline Pilots" sketch is set in the cockpit of a commercial airliner, with Cleese (as captain) and Chapman (as copilot). The airliner is on autopilot. Bored, they start making reassuring intercom messages to the passengers telling them there is nothing to worry about – at which point, of course, the passengers get worried – aided by the flight attendant (Palin). These messages get continually more incomprehensible or mutually contradictory until eventually all the passengers bail out. The Monty Python sketch "Bomb on Plane" in episode 35 alluded briefly to this sketch when pilot Michael Palin told passengers, "Our destination is Glasgow; there is no need to panic."
Release
This film was directed by Ian Fordyce who also directed At Last the 1948 Show, and was made in the UK for the American market in an attempt to introduce them to the new style of British humour. For this reason the recording is made to the NTSC colour standard. The idea for the show came from David Frost.
It appears the show was never broadcast in the UK, but was first broadcast in the United States on 21 January 1969. Contemporary reviews suggest a broadcast slot of 60 minutes, which would make the version broadcast somewhat shorter than the current video release. In addition, reviews refer to David Frost as appearing in the show, whereas he is absent from the video version. Michael Palin has also referred to the show being 'tightened up' for the video release.
The show has appeared on DVD, sometimes with "irritating" backward packaging and deliberately faulty navigation - an example of this is the 2002 Sanctuary Visual Entertainment release (Catalogue no. SDF2020); the sleeve has the front image on the back and vice versa - the menu in the disc changes every time an option is selected, and needs to be pressed several times.