Spanish Inquisition named top Python sketch

Monty Python’s best sketch has been named… and it doesn’t involve a dead parrot.

American magazine Entertainment Weekly has named The Spanish Inquisition as the team’s finest hour in a rundown of 20 classic Python moments

It said the crusading cardinals were “unforgettable for one reason: torture by kitchen drying rack, and Michael Palin's inability to count...two! Two reasons.”

In the top 20, published to mark the opening of Eric Idle’s Holy Grail musical Spamalot on Broadway, The Ministry of Silly Walks was second and the Dead Parrot sketch, a perennial favourite only fourth.

The full list – which included the Python movies as well as the TV series – is:

1. The Spanish Inquisition
2. Ministry Of Silly Walks
3. Guy De Loimbard’s Castle (from Holy Grail)
4. Dead Parrot
5. The Funniest Joke In The World
6. Fish-Slapping Dance
7. The Lumberjack Song
8. Nudge Nudge
9. Eric The Half A Bee
10. Stoning (from Life of Brian)
11. Crunchy Frog
12. Self Defence
13. Spam
14. Interesting People
15. Every Sperm Is Sacred (from Meaning Of Life)
16. The Visitors
17. Mrs Premise and Mrs Conclusion Visit Sartre
18. The Restaurant Sketch
19. Kilimanjaro Expedition
20. Argument Clinic

For more on theses sketches, visit Entertainment Weekly

Published: 1 Mar 2005