Monty Python's Flying Circus/Owl-Stretching Time

Owl-Stretching Time
Season One, Episode 4
Airdate	October 26, 1969
Production Number	53485
Written by	Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin
Directed by	Ian McNaughton
← 1x03 How to Recognise Different Types of Trees from Quite a Long Way Away	1x05 → Man's Crisis of Identity in the Latter Half of the Twentieth Century
Monty Python's Flying Circus — Season One

Owl-Stretching Time is the fourth episode of the first season of Monty Python's Flying Circus.

Also Appearing: Dick Vosburgh (Van Der Berg), Carol Cleveland (Nurse), Katya Wyeth (Seductress)

Episode Breakdown

• And Did Those Feet: A singer (Idle) plays a song about teeth in the ancient time before introducing a sketch requested by Pip, Pauline, Nigel, Tarquin, and Old Spotty (Tarquin's mother).
• Art Gallery: In an upscale art gallery, a woman (Cleese) meets with another housewife (Chapman) and the two converse while beating their kids for deliberately trying to damage the paintings. Marge goes off screen to hit her son and stop him from eating a painting, but decides to try a bite for herself, as does her friend.
• Art Critic: An art critic (Palin) criticizes how an Utrillo painting tastes when his wife (Wyeth) asks if he'd like some "Watteau." The critic laments about how awful that joke is and it cuts back to the singer. The woman from before comes on stage and starts seducing him, which he goes along with although that doesn't stop him from singing his song and playing the guitar.
• It's a Man's Life in the Modern Army: Following the display of "It's a man's life in the Cardiff Rooms, Libya," a military colonel (Chapman) comes on screen to denounce the parody of the British military slogan used to advertise the Army, "It's a man's life in the modern army." He threatens anyone who should plagiarize the slogan again and then directs the director to cut to camera two. The camera cuts to a viking (Gilliam), who says "This is my only line." Everyone groans and he gets defensive.
• Undressing in Public: A gentleman in a striped blazer and straw hat (Palin) walks down the stairs to the beach and begins to undress in public with a large crowd of people watching. He tries to cover himself with a towel, but two girls who were hiding behind a ledge pull it away. He goes to a changing tent but finds a man peeping in on him. He shoves the man aside and tries to go back in, but it's occupied. At a loss, the man tries to change behind an ice-cream truck but it leaves and he is chased off by a police officer. He goes into the city to talk with a doorman (Chapman) in hopes that he'll allow him inside to change. But the wires get crossed and the doorman drops his pants in confusion. The man then ducks behind a stack of chairs, which is quickly distributed before he has a chance to change. He moves to a nearby tent, but that too disassembled. The man tries to change in a corner but an old woman beats him, causing him to flee into a dark area. He winds up on stage and dances a striptease for the crowd. The phrase "It's a man's life taking your clothes off in public" appears on screen and the colonel (Chapman) protests once again and warns that he'll come down on the program "like a ton of bricks" if any more infringing occurs. He throws to "Sargent Major."
• Self-Defence: In a self defense class, the overbearing instructor (Cleese) confronts a group of men enlisted in his class, which is far fewer than his previous class. In this class, he is continuing a lesson on how to defend one's self from a man armed with fresh fruit. Which is the same lesson he's delivered for the past several weeks. The classmates protest, one in particular (Idle) asks if they could learn about defending themselves against "point-ed sticks." He moves on to passionfruit, but they've already done that one. They list off a long list of fruit that they've gone through, so he teaches them about bananas. He tosses a banana to one of the classmates (Chapman) and tells them that first they get the assailant to drop the banana, then eat the banana to disarm him. The instructor bids the student to attack him, he lunges and is shot dead by the instructor. The class complains, shocked, and asks what they should do if they don't have a gun on them should someone attack with a banana. He recommends they run for it. He gives a raspberry to Thompson (Palin) and asks him to attack with it. Thompson hesitates until he throws out the gun, then attacks but is crushed under a 16-ton weight. The instructor then gives the two remaining classmates several more raspberries and tells them to come at him with them. He turns his back so that they can sneak up on him, they do so and he releases a tiger on them. The tiger, however, is not recommended for people with peaches. The instructor, fresh out of students, screams at no one in particular until he blows himself up in self-defense.
• Operation: An animated man shows off a tattoo on his stomach of his last operation, in which has the surgeons removing several severed body parts from someone's chest. These parts are pushed into a hole and reassembled by an irate man in the hole. A hand from nowhere puts a cart on their shoulders and they become real. The Victorian men take the clothing off their master, revealing a swimsuit and he gets back in the cart so they can take him into the ocean. Cut back to the singer and the woman under covers in bed. He introduces the next sketch, which is for Versailles. A rustic man (Cleese) uses the phrase "it's a man's life in England's Mountain Green," which causes the colonel (Chapman) to come again and demands that they do something about teeth.
• Secret Service Dentists: In a bookstore, a man (Idle) comes in looking for a book to buy from the bookstore manager (Cleese). He insists that they don't have any books, but there are clearly books littered all around the store. He says that all of those books are sold and tries to get the man to go to the bookstore across the street until the patron says that he was sent here. The manager takes this as a sign that he is a spy giving a signal to his masters, but that's clearly not the case. He tries to backtrack saying there's nothing going on, with the help of Van der Berg (Vosburgh) who has a machine gun, but that just makes things worse. He's looking for a copy of An Illustrated History of False Teeth which prompts the manager to pull a gun on him, assuming that he's a dentist. Another man named Lafarge (Palin) comes in with a gun and pushes Stapleton against a wall and demands to know where the fillings are. Stapleton lets loose the information, but Van der Berg corners him with a machine gun and his nurse (Cleveland). Van der Berg turns out to be a double-crosser and tries to pry the information out of the two of them. He too is stopped, this time by Brian (Jones) with a bazooka. He threatens their lives, hoping to find out what happened to Baby Jane. He recants but forgets what he wanted, Stapleton reminds him and he counts down from 5. No one tells him, but he forgets to fire his gun. He too is interrupted by The Big Cheese (Chapman). The Big Cheese shoots his pet rabbit and they all start hissing at him which stops when they all go on a lunch break. The original patron, Arthur Lemming, phones the British Dental Association and tells them what happened, as he was a secret dental agent all along. After he explains what happened in the end, "It's a Man's Life in the British Dental Association" flashes on screen and the Colonel (Chapman) returns and ends the program.

Notes

"It's..."

• Michael Palin's shabby looking man is tossed over a ledge where he lands below. He crawls breathlessly on a pile of gravel before saying "Its..."

Trivia

The Show

• First Appearance: The 16-ton weight which would go on to end many sketches throughout the course of the series first appears in the "Self-Defence" sketch.